Thunderbirds run Wild over Manitoulin

The Soo Thunderbirds are still keeping themselves in the hunt for a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season title.

With a win Friday night against the Manitoulin Wild, a team that has beaten every NOJHL team but the Thunderbirds, the Soo could move 11 points back of the Skyhawks with a four game edge in games played.

The Thunderbirds helped their cause beating the aforementioned Wild 4-1 at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The game began on a strange note as the Wild had a player in their line-up that was not listed on the official scoresheet that was filled out prior to the game.

The player, Kyle Mason, was allowed to compete in the game though as Northern Ontario Hockey Association rules allow a player to compete in a game even if he is not on the official scoresheet, provided that player was on the bench when the game started and is entered on the sheet by game's end.

Despite the delay while everything was straightened out, the Thunderbirds jumped out to an early lead as Jason Weigel scored on the power play at 6:30 beating Manitoulin starter Jay Punsky with a point shot that the netminder never saw.

Then at 13:11, Matt Dias ringed a shot off the crossbar and into the net to increase the lead to 2-0. Mike MacMillan sent the game into the first intermission with the Thunderbirds leading 3-0 with a goal in the final minute.

In the second period, the Wild cut the lead down to 3-1 as Eldon Cheechoo scored a power play marker at 7:13.

Josh Leddy gave the Thunderbirds another three goal lead to work with when he deflected a Kyle Jones point shot past Punsky at 17:31 to conclude the scoring.

An uneventful third period did provide a spark late as there were three fights in the game's final minutes. The first involved Soo forward Jason Weigel and Manitoulin forward Mike Moote, the second pairing Kelly Thomson of the Soo and Cheechoo of the Wild and the final one, at the end of the game, matched Soo defenceman Jeff Elliot and Manitoulin forward Jarred Wood.

Goaltending was solid both ways as Casey Mapes stopped 24 shots in the win, while Prunsky made 32 saves in a losing effort.

The Wild played the game without forward Aaron Assinewai, who is the team's second leading scorer, behind brother Brent. Assinewai was a healthy scratch for the game.

Thunderbirds coach Jim Capy was pleased in getting the win, but says his team still needs to develop a killer instinct when it comes to putting teams away.

"We gotta learn to put teams away," Capy said. "I'm happy we got the two points, but we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We came into the game saying we need ten wins to be league champs and after this game we wanted to say we need nine wins."

Capy went on to say that the key games in the season are ahead of his team as they still have two games left to play against North Bay, both road games along with games remaining against Sudbury.

Capy added that the team set their schedule up that way in order to help prepare for the playoffs and not have any easy games between now and the time the playoffs open.

The Thunderbirds played the game without defenceman Eric McKechnie who is no longer with the team. Bryan Pearse and Alex Butkus were also healthy scratches for the Thunderbirds, who dressed 15 skaters for the game.

Next action for the Thunderbirds will be on Sunday evening at the Rhodes at 6 p.m. when the Sudbury Northern Wolves pay their final regular season visit to the Soo before the Northern Michigan Black Bears make their final regular season appearance on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.