Though it ended on a sour note, a busy week of action for the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Soo Thunderbirds saw the club grab five of a possible six points in three games.
Less than 24 hours after a win over the Espanola Express on home ice Saturday night, the Thunderbirds dropped a 5-4 shootout decision Sunday afternoon on the road against the Blind River Beavers.
Playing with a short-bench Sunday, Thunderbirds coach Cole Jarrett credited the effort of his team in the loss, adding that coming out of the weekend with a pair of wins and a shootout loss was a positive.
“It definitely gives us a lot of confidence knowing that we can play under those circumstances,” Jarrett said. “We were dealt a pretty bad hand for the weekend and the boys stuck with it.”
Jarrett added that the team learned Sunday morning it would be down another player for the game in Colby Arbour in addition to already being shorthanded for the game.
After receiving a misconduct in the late stages of Saturday’s game against Espanola, Arbour was given an additional penalty for lifting his visor up while leaving the ice.
With the short bench for the game against the Beavers, Jarrett said the safety of his players was a concern due to numbers.
“I was worried more about the safety of our players and to go in there with a short lineup and have guys kicked out and the bench gets so much shorter, the boys did a good job protecting themselves, not only today, but last night too in a real physical game,” Jarrett said. “We learned a lot throughout the weekend.”
Creo Solomon paced the Thunderbirds offensively in Sunday’s game against the Beavers with a pair of goals, giving the rookie blueliner six points in his last three games following a two-assist effort on Saturday as well.
“Creo’s game has gotten better week after week,” Jarrett said. “He’s not an overly flashy player, but he’s a very effective player. He’s great in his own zone. He has great instincts taking the rush, when to step up and how to step up.”
Jarrett added that Solomon “is ahead of where I thought he was going to be, but I’m not surprised with how well he’s playing.”
Michael Chaffay and Kelsey Ouellet had the other goals for the Thunderbirds on Sunday.
Noah Zeppa stopped 40 shots for the Thunderbirds.
“They were both really good all weekend,” Jarrett said of the Thunderbirds goaltending tandem of Zeppa and Noah Metivier. “Today for Zep, he had two goals go in when he had guys laying on top of him. It’s tough to make a save when you’ve got guys all over you, but it is what it is and you have to play through it.”
Jarrett added that, despite not being overly busy against the Express in Saturday’s game “when he had to make a save, he made a great save and he was able to control the second chances.”
Evan Fraccaro had the shootout winner for the Beavers while Meguire Naughton had a goal and an assist in regulation time.
George Albion assisted on a pair of Blind River goals. Jesse Dupuis, Caleb Minns, and Trevor Zimmer also scored.
Gavin Disano got the start for the Beavers in goal, but was pulled after the Thunderbirds went up 2-0 just over four minutes in. The sophomore netminder stopped six of eight shots.
Jeremi Delaquis stopped 24 of 26 shots the rest of the way.
The Thunderbirds return to action on Friday night at home against the Soo (Mich.) Eagles. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. at the John Rhodes Community Centre.