For the birds! Skyhawks rally past T-Birds

The new year's return to action for the Soo Thunderbirds proved to be an unsuccessful one.

Blowing a two-goal lead, the Thunderbirds dropped a 6-5 decision to the North Bay Skyhawks on Friday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action in North Bay.

The game marked the Thunderbirds first action since Dec. 22.

Chris Towell began a flurry of action with a power play goal 3:05 into the opening to give the Thunderbirds, who were aided by the services of Soo Greyhounds forward Jacob Lalonde, an early lead.

Towell's score marked the first of five goals in a span of 2:20.

Adam Cook tied the game for the Skyhawks at 3:17 before Yves Bastien added another at 3:43. Kyle Rodgers tied the game for the Thunderbirds at 4:36 before David Shearer scored at 5:25 to restore the North Bay lead to 3-2.

Thunderbirds starting goaltender Michael Maulucci was given the hook by head coach Toots Kovacs in favour of Matt Hache after Shearer's goal as the netminder allowed three goals on six shots.

In the second period, Ryan Maunu tied the game at 7:28 before Towell scored his second of the game eight seconds later. Justin Shelleby's unassisted goal at 11:36 gave the Thunderbirds a 5-3 advantage.

Follwoing Shelleby's goal, the Skyhawks made a goaltending change of their own as Mike Lalonde, who shut the Thunderbirds down the rest of the game, replaced Chris Abbey.

North Bay began their comeback late in the second period as Marc-Andre Rizk scored a power play goal. Dustin McCrank tied the game at 5-5 early in third period before David Frawley completed the comeback with a heartbreaking goal with 1:05 remaining in regulation time.

Skyhawks head coach Randy Edmonds called Friday's victory an "ugly win".

"I guess it's more important the way you finish than the way you start," Edmonds told SooToday.com's sister site BayToday.ca. "I thought defensively we were really, really struggling which is unlike us."

The Thunderbirds outshot the Skyhawks 36-26 while Hache stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced.

The loss drops the Thunderbirds record to 14-12-2-1 for 31 points. The second place club sits four points behind the Northern Michigan Black Bears, who hold a game in hand, in the race for first in the western division.

The Thunderbirds are back in action on Saturday in Blind River against the Beavers at 7:30 p.m.

The Beavers sit a point behind the Soo with two games in hand while the Manitoulin Wild also have 30 points but have played one more game than the locals.

In an important contest on Friday, the Black Bears rallied from a 4-3 deficit to defeat the Wild 5-4.

(Photo by BayToday.ca's Chris Dawson)