Less than a day after a thrilling overtime win, the Soo Thunderbirds find themselves on the outside looking in.
With the dramatic 3-2 double overtime win over North Bay on Wednesday night, the Thunderbirds had renewed hope of securing a playoff spot at the Dudley-Hewitt Cup Central Canadian Jr. A Championships in North Bay.
But on Thursday afternoon, the Thunderbirds dropped a 7-3 decision to the Fort William First Nation North Stars to eliminate the locals from playoff contention based on a goals-for and goals-against tiebreaking formula.
With the North Bay Skyhawks falling 5-1 to the undefeated Aurora Tigers on Thursday night, the Thunderbirds found themselves in a three-way tie for second place with North Bay and Fort William at 1-2.
After completing the math, the Thunderbirds were eliminated while North Bay will battle Fort William in Friday night's semi-final.
The semi-final winner will advance into Saturday night's championship game against Aurora.
The eventual Dudley-Hewitt Cup champion will represent the region at the national championship Royal Bank Cup May 8-16 in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
Against Fort William, the Thunderbirds jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Alex Butkus and Mike MacMillan.
After MacMillan's power play goal, the North Stars took over with five unanswered goals. Kory McEwan scored before the period was over to pull the Superior International Junior Hockey League champions to within a goal at 2-1.
In the second period, the North Stars used a goal from Nathan Breukelman to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the final period.
By the 8:58 mark of the third period, Fort William had built a 5-2 lead on goals by Mike Greaves, Tom Grant and Breukelman's second of the game.
Kelly Thomson scored at 11:40 to pull the Thunderbirds back to within two at 5-3 but the North Stars iced the game with a pair of late goals from Brian Ross and Cory Bruno.
Jarrett Michaels, who played a solid game in the tournament opening 3-1 loss to Aurora, made the start in net.
*** STANDINGS:
(wins-loses-points)
Final round robin:
Aurora 3-0-6 North Bay 1-2-2 Fort William 1-2-2 Soo Thunderbirds 1-2-2
*** MORE T-BIRDS:
* To read more about Wednesday's overtime contest from SooToday.com's sister site, BayToday.ca, in North Bay, click here.
* To view pictures courtesy of Jim Egan from Tuesday's Dudley-Hewitt opener against Aurora, click the photo gallery link at the bottom of this story.
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