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Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
With the seventh place (13-16-1-1) Soo Thunderbirds sitting twelve points back of the visiting fourth place (19-9-1-1) Blind River Beavers, the Thunderbirds hosted the Beavers on Friday, December 20th at the John Rhodes Centre in Sault Ste Marie in NOJHL action.
At 5:01 of the second with Thunderbird netminder Noah Metivier on the bench of an extra attacker for a delayed Blind River penalty, Soo forward Jacob Smith sends a pass from red line back to defenseman Tyler Neveau missing the pass into an empty net to give the Beavers a 1 – 0 lead. Jacob Beemer was credited with Blind River first goal of the game with his second of the season. 41 seconds after the Beavers goal, Jack McPherson sends a pass to the left faceoff circle to Aiden Atkinson to find the back of Blind River goaltender Bronx Bodnar to even the game 1 – 1 for the Soo. Camden Cowan had the other helper on Atkinson’s powerplay goal. On a powerplay to the left of the Thunderbird net, YiBin Yoo wins the faceoff back to Jack Kruiderink for the go-ahead goal for the Beavers at 19:35 of the second just under Metivier’s catcher to give Blind River a 2 – 1 lead. Camden Cowan picks up a Deven Jones-McDonald rebound of off Bodnar’s chest to even the game 2 – 2 at the 6:20 mark of the third. McPherson drew the other helper on Cowan’s fourth of the season. From just inside the left side of the blueline, Jack Kruiderink fires a shot along the ice to find the back of Thunderbird net through Metivier’s five hole at 8:18 of the third to give the Beavers their 20th win of the season. Owen King and Isaiah Allen notched the assists on Kruiderink’s eighth of the season. Blind River goaltender Bronx Bodnar stopped 27 of 29 shots in the Beavers win while Soo netminder Noah Metivier turned away 22 of 24 shots in the Thunderbirds 17th loss of the season.
Beaver coach Kyle Brick told Saultsports that “I thought we played a greasy road game tonight was far from pretty but we found a way! We had some stand out performances tonight from Bodnar and Kruiderink. We’re happy with 20 wins before Christmas so we’ll take some time to reset and regroup as we head into the new year!”
“I liked our compete level tonight. Ultimately we fell short again here, but we’re seeing some guys really elevated their games lately. It’s such a fine line this year between winning and losing that every detail matters. We need to continue to improve in all areas,” said Thunderbird coach Jamie Henderson.
Next action for the Thunderbirds will be when they face the Soo Eagles at the Pullar Stadium on January 4th with a puck drop at 7:00 p.m while the Beavers host the Espanola Paper Kings on January 4th with a start of 7:00 p.m in Blind River.
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