Thunderbirds, Beavers to compete for the COVID Cup

The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Soo Thunderbirds and Blind River Beavers have met 10 times already this season as part of a league cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday afternoon, the league, in conjunction with both teams, announced the dates of the next seven schedule games between the two clubs, and it has a little bit of a spin.

The teams will be turning the seven games into the COVID Cup.

The series, which will feature the traditional points system for the NOJHL regular season standings, has some added features as well.

In addition to the traditional two points for a regulation or shootout win and one point for losing in a shootout, the team that wins each period of all seven games will also receive an additional half-point.

The winning team at the end of the seven-game series will receive a trophy and a Most Valuable Player award will be handed out in addition to team awards.

“After an unprecedented season, on and off the ice, we’re happy to still be competing against Blind River,” Thunderbirds coach Denny Lambert said in a prepared statement. “Algoma Public Health, along with the NOJHL, have done an amazing job making sure the players, staff, families, and billet families followed rules and regulations to be sure that they would have an opportunity to play. Both teams have played hard against one another this year and we’re looking forward to playing seven more.” 

Beavers coach Kyle Brick also noted the rivalry between the two clubs, one that goes further back than just the start of this season.

“I’m happy that we were able to come up with a competitive way to end our season series,” Brick said in a prepared statement.

“It’s no secret that our teams have been rivals for quite some time now and there is definitely no love lost between the two teams,” added Brick, who is also the Beavers’ general manager.

“We’re definitely looking forward to this new challenge. This season has been an interesting one for sure and I have to give credit to the players in the league who stuck it out and battled through the uncertainty.”

The schedule for the series is as follows:

• Game 1: March 14 at 2 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
• Game 2: March 18 at 7 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
• Game 3: March 20 at 7 p.m. (Blind River Community Centre)
• Game 4: March 21 at 4 p.m. (Blind River Community Centre)
• Game 5: March 25 at 7 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
• Game 6: March 27 at 7 p.m. (Blind River Community Centre)
• Game 7: March 28 at 2 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)

The Thunderbirds and Beavers are two of just four teams remaining that are playing games in the NOJHL.

The Timmins Rock and Cochrane Crunch are also facing each other in the lone other NOJHL cohort.

On Wednesday, the league announced that the Rayside-Balfour Canadians, Espanola Express, and French River Rapids made the decision to cancel the remainder of their seasons due to COVID-19 restrictions in their areas.

Due to the closure of the border between Canada and the United States, the Soo Eagles season has consisted of exhibition games when possible.

Prior to the start of the season, the Elliot Lake Wildcats announced they would take a leave from the league for this season due to the pandemic.

In January, the Powassan Voodoos announced they would be taking a leave as well.

The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners and Hearst Lumberjacks announced in February their intention to take a leave for the remainder of the season as well.