Thunderbirds cap road trip with win

The Soo Thunderbirds returned home on Sunday night after capturing four of a possible six points during a tough road swing of three games in three days.

The Thunderbirds finished the road trip with a 7-5 victory on Sunday afternoon against the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats after falling 6-4 to the Abitibi Eskimos on Saturday night in Iroquois Falls.

On Saturday, the Eskimos built up a 4-0 lead by the 11:19 mark of the first period and held off a Thunderbirds rally for the win.

Jessy Lebel, Ian Wong, Matt Brunet on the power play and Jacie Gagne provided the Eskimos scoring before Matt Dias put the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard with a power play goal with 33 seconds remaining in the first period.

Luc Champagne scored another power play goal for Abitibi before Tony Brune replied for the Thunderbirds late in the second period.

With the Soo trailing 5-2 heading into the final period, Adam Chircoski scored 1:05 into the third period to increase the Eskimos lead. Adam Kauppi scored an unassisted goal at 6:08 to give a little life to the Thunderbirds and Kyle Rodgers added a late goal.

Drew Jarrett recorded two assists for the Thunderbirds while Yves Bernard picked up three helpers, Michel Charette two and Chircoski one for the Eskimos.

Matt Hache started the game in net for the T-Birds but was pulled after Brunet's power play goal at 9:36 after allowing three goals on seven shots. Michael Maulucci kicked aside 37 of 40 shots the rest of the way. Steve Hamel stopped 21 of 25 shots for the win.

Thunderbirds head coach Toots Kovacs was ejected from the game with 5:47 remaining in the third period after having words for referee Marc Cashmore. Defenseman Tyler Lannigan also received a game misconduct following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the second period.

On Sunday after falling behind 2-1 to Rayside, the Thunderbirds exploded for four unanswered goals to skate to the 6-4 win.

Rayside's Eric Perreault and the Soo's Kyle Jones exchanged goals in the first period before Ben Robichaud put the Sabrecats ahead 2-1 with a power play goal at 8:14 of the second period.

Dias started the Thunderbirds rally with a power play goal at 11:43. Justin Shelleby scored 46 seconds later and Pat Keating found the net 32 seconds after that. Derek MacKay then scored with 2:48 remaining in the period.

Brendan Foreshew scored for Rayside late in the second period before Jeff Christison scored twice in the third period.

Dias added his second of the night on the power play and Ryan Maunu scored another goal for the Thunderbirds. Kauppi and Mark Thorburn recorded two assists each while MacKay, Dias and Maulucci each assisted on a goal.

Josh Slobodian recorded four assists for Rayside while Perreault added another.

The Thunderbirds overwhelmed Rayside with 55 shots on goal as Rayside starter Darren Rowlandson was pulled in favour of Cedric Bradette after Keating's goal in the second period. Maulucci stopped 30 of 35 shots for the win.

The Thunderbirds now hold a record of 20-15-2-2 for 44 points and remain in third place in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League's western division.

Following a lengthy stretch away from home, the Thunderbirds return to the John Rhodes Community Centre to begin a tough two-game home stand.

Abitibi visits on Friday at 7:30 p.m. while the western division leading Northern Michigan Black Bears will be in town on Sunday at 2 p.m.