Thunderbirds open playoffs with a loss

The Soo Thunderbirds finally returned to the ice on Wednesday night to open the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs.

Having received a first round bye for their first place performance during the regular season, the Thunderbirds were seeing their first game action since March 2.

Despite battling back from a 2-0 deficit, the Thunderbirds surrendered two goals late in the third period as the Sudbury Junior Wolves took the opener 4-2 at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The best-of-seven semi-final series continues with game two on Saturday night in Sudbury. Game three is scheduled for Monday at the Rhodes.

J.F. Houle scored the lone first period goal while former Soo Greyhound Scott Restoule added another 21 seconds into the second period for a 2-0 Sudbury lead.

Jerry Petingalo scored before the period was out and Brett Perlini scored 5:03 into the third period to rally the Thunderbirds into a 2-2 game.

But Zach McGillis scored the game winner for the Wolves with 5:22 remaining and Brendan Biedermann was awarded a goal as referee Jamie Appleton assessed a penalty shot while the Thunderbirds were playing with the goaltender on the bench for an extra attacker in closing seconds.

Sudbury outshot the Soo 34-25 with Joey Delwo taking the win in goal for Sudbury and Travis O'Brien the loss for the Thunderbirds.

The other NOJHL semi-final series, pitting the Abitibi Eskimos, who also received a first round bye, and the North Bay Skyhawks, begins on Saturday in Iroquois Falls.

Sudbury took out the Blind River Beavers in six games in the quarterfinal round while North Bay beat the Manitoulin Islanders in five games.

Game three between Sudbury and the Soo will be broadcast live on SportsZeus.com on Monday at 7:30 p.m. with Randy Russon and Kevin Cain doing the play by play and commentary.