Thunder storm past Marquette for championship (Photos added)

The Soo Thunder finally seem to have Marquette's number.

Heading into the 24th Annual Steel City International Tournament, the Thunder had only managed two ties in five outings against their Northern International Hockey League rivals.

At the Steel City, the Thunder beat the Marquette American Legion twice, including a 6-3 decision in the Bantam AAA Minor division championship on Sunday afternoon at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

In the final, the Thunder grabbed a 2-0 first period lead and never looked back as the Thunder rebounded any time Marquette grabbed some momentum.

Michael Paul opened the scoring 2:07 into the first period before Brett Thompson added another on the power play at 7:08.

Ray Nolan pulled Marquette back into the game with a power play goal late in the first period before Richard MacLennan increased the Thunder's lead to 3-1 early in the second period.

After the Thunder shut down Marquette star Justin Florek for better than two periods, Florek answered in the third period with a goal to give his team some life.

But the Thunder quickly turned the momentum back in their favour as MacLennan scored his second of the night 52 seconds later by blasting a high shot past the Marquette goaltender from the left circle.

"That goal was huge," said Thunder head coach Ken Hruska. "(MacLennan) played a great game and that was a great shot. Just holding a one goal lead against that team would have been tough."

Thompson scored his second goal of the contest short handed less than a minute later for a 5-2 Thunder lead.

Joey Enright scored another Marquette goal with 3:26 remaining but MacLennan sealed the victory with his hat trick goal into an empty net in the dying seconds.

Ryan MacDonald picked up the win in goal with a solid effort while Paul also added an assist.

The Thunder were aided from their bye into the championship game after finishing first in the four team division. Marquette defeated the St. Catherines Sabres 7-5 in the 8 a.m. semi-final game.

"That was an advantage for us. If we would have had to play a semi-final this morning and then face Marquette, it would have been very tough," said Hruska. "They have a couple of players that are hard to stop and our guys, Thompson, Amadio and MacLennan, were basically assigned to watch them and did a helluva job."

Earlier in the tournament, the Thunder, which captured their first ever Steel City tournament, defeated Marquette 6-4.