Thunderbirds lose game and defenceman

Soo Thunderbirds coach Jordan Smith was pretty blunt when talking about how he felt about his teams performance on Sunday night against the Elliot Lake Wildcats.

The Thunderbirds dropped a 5-2 decision to the Wildcats in NOrthern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at the John Rhodes Community Centre Sunday, a game in which Smith said he was disgusted with when asked his thoughts on the loss.

“We’re nowhere close to where we need to be and it worries me because there are no excuses,” Smith said. “It’s not because we didn’t play a system or we didn’t get a bounce or the ref made a bad call. It comes down to willingness to compete. When you’ve got guys who aren’t competing and showing up just to show up, you’ve got problems.”

“We need to figure it out pretty quick here,” Smith added. “The coaching staff is going to have to make some changes and get this thing on track. Tomorrow’s a new day I guess but it’s brutal, just brutal.”

The Thunderbirds fell behind 2-0 in the opening period and, despite outshooting the Wildcats 30-25 in the contest, couldn’t turn the tides in the game.

Nic Tassone and Nic Sicoly had the goals for the Thunderbirds in the loss while goaltender Brian Kment made 20 saves.

“We don’t scoreboard watch but we knew they were good,” Smith said of the Wildcats. “That was the message before the game. These guys had won four in a row and they’re feeling good. They’ll be ready to go. If we’re not ready to go, it’s going to be a long night and we definitely were not ready to go.”

Adam Baxter had two goals and an assist for the Wildcats while Shane Woolsey added a goal and two helpers. David Chiarelli and Spencer MacLean also scored in the win. MacLean finished the night with an assist as well while Mick Tourangeau set up a pair of goals.

Goaltender A.J. Smith stopped 28 shots for Elliot Lake.

“There’s something really special about this team,” Wildcats coach Nathan Hewitt. “We really pulled it together in about two months. We had about eight weeks to put together a whole new team. Everybody kind of came here with a chip on their shoulder. We did a lot of recruiting at camps in different league where guys were the last guy cut so they all have something to prove.”

The loss drops the Thunderbirds record to 2-2 while Elliot Lake improves to 5-1, having won five-straight since losing their season opener to Sudbury.

The Thunderbirds return to action on Tuesday night when they host Blind River at the John Rhodes. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.

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HEADRICK OUT FOR THUNDERBIRDS

The Thunderbirds played Sunday’s game without the services of sophomore defenceman Owen Headrick.

Headrick missed the game and will be out for a lengthy period as the blueliner is scheduled to go under the knife to correct a shoulder problem that has plagued the 17-year-old early on this season.

The surgery could mean the Thunderbirds will be without Headrick for up to four months as he recovers.

Headrick committed to Lake Superior State University earlier this month.