Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
MASSEY, Ont. – A well-balanced offensive effort saw the Soo Thunderbirds get goals from six different skaters Friday as they went on to double-up the Elliot Lake Vikings 6-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at Massey & District Community Arena.
Sault Ste. Marie began the scoring just over two minutes into the match-up when Charlie Munroe put an attempt towards the target from the top of the right circle that clipped off teammate Jonathan Sonedecker, parked in front, and in for a goal early into his NOJHL debut.
Answering with an equalizer at 12:15, Elliot Lake kept a play in the Thunderbirds’ zone, which allowed Nate Dugwell to fire a feed over to Owen Kahl, who was initially stopped by netminder Maverick Fletcher, but was quick to knock in the rebound.
The Soo came back to retake the lead a couple of shifts later when Daniel Beaupre made a nice toe drag and whipped a shot high over the glove of a downed Vikings’ goalkeeper Sam Keene.
The visitors then went up by a pair as Thomas Degagne jammed in a loose puck off a goal-mouth scramble.
Munroe then collected his initial league tally before the first intermission off a solid Soo forecheck that allowed him to whip one upstairs on Keene.
Heading to the middle stanza, Elliot Lake got one back when Nathan Marincola intercepted a play in his own end, then darted down the left wing, where he made a nice move and lifted a shot high over the blocker of Fletcher at 16:56.
Some more Marincola magic saw him wheel up ice in transition and put a pass across to Max Ciesielski on the right side, where he neatly picked the bottom corner to make it a 4-3 game after 40 minutes.
In the third, the Soo added to their edge when Quinn Myles converted from between the hash marks at 4:20.
The T-Birds then helped secure the victory thanks to a Callum McAuley man advantage effort in the back half of the session to round out the night’s scoring.
With the win, the Thunderbirds improve to 22-9-2-1 overall and in defeat, the Vikings dropped to 5-24-1-4.
