Thunderbirds end round robin with win

The Soo Thunderbirds wrapped up the round robin at the 2016 Dudley Hewitt Cup on Thursday on a positive note heading into the playoff round.

Facing the host team, the Thunderbirds got a goal from Matt Busby with 2:39 left in regulation time to beat the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 3-2 to finish the round robin with a 2-1 record in the four-team event.

“We were able to establish our game-plan,” said Thunderbirds Coach Jordan Smith. “We had a great start to the game and maintained a high pace for a majority of the game. (Kirkland Lake) had a push back in the third but I was proud of the way our guys handled themselves to weather the storm.”

Veteran forward Jaren Bellini assisted on three goals to pace the Thunderbirds.

“I didn’t even realize (Bellini had three assists) but that’s what type of player he is,” Smith said. “He’s not always the flashiest guy but at the end of the night he ends up with a couple points. It was nice to see a big night offensively and hopefully he can carry it into tomorrow.”

Matt Pinder and Matthew Caruso had the other goals for the Thunderbirds.

Goaltender Brendon Gordon made 33 saves for the Thunderbirds.

“Gordy was great,” Smith said of the rookie netminder. “He was solid when he had to be. He had a couple of bad bounces on the Kirkland Lake goals but he did the job.”

Trevor Hester and Blake Anderson scored for Kirkland Lake.

Tyler Mazzocato got the start in goal and stopped 28 or 30 shots in two periods of work. Victor-Olivier Courchesne came in for the third period and stopped seven of eight shots for the Gold Miners.

The Thunderbirds and Gold Miners will meet again on Friday in the semi-final

Thursday’s other game saw the Ontario Junior League’s Trenton Golden Hawks blank the Superior International League’s Fort Frances Lakers 3-0.

Jackson McIntosh made 36 saves for the shutout while Kevin Lavoie, Ethan Skinner and Jordan DaSilva completed the Trenton scoring. Keaton Ratcliffe assisted on a pair of goals for the Golden Hawks.

Brandon Bodnar made 32 saves for Fort Frances. Pierce Dushenko came in and made a pair of saves in the final 90 seconds of the game.

The Lakers finished the tournament winless after losses to Kirkland Lake and the Thunderbirds on the opening two days. The Lakers dropped an 8-5 decision to the Gold Miners on Tuesday before dropping a 6-5 decision to the Thunderbirds on Wednesday.

Trenton will advance directly to Saturday’s tournament final after winning all three round robin games. Trenton beat the Thunderbirds 4-2 on day one before beating Kirkland Lake 5-1 on Wednesday.