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Breaking open a tie game with a trio of third period tallies, the Soo Thunderbirds went on to defeat the Iroquois Falls Storm 4-1 Saturday night in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at Jus Jordan Arena.
A fast-paced opening 20 minutes went without a goal, thanks to the efforts of the night’s starting netminders, the Storm’s Justin Sullivan and Lincoln Mellenthin of the Thunderbirds, a news release said.
Wasting little time in opening the scoring in the middle frame, the home side’s Andre Cho put a crisp feed up the middle that allowed Jack Jarvis to split the defence and move in alone where he cut to his right and tucked in a backhand at the 18-second mark.
Coming back to tie it, Sault Ste. Marie’s Aiden Atkinson made a sharp cross-crease feed over to Camden Cowan, who was left with space to slam in the equalizer at 14:03.
Taking the lead early in the third, the T-Birds’ Cam Freeman finished off some sharp passing in the Storm zone.
Getting Sullivan out for an extra attacker with over two minutes to play, Iroquois Falls looked to pull even, but Atkinson iced it from distance as his long-range effort into an empty net sealed the win for the Soo.
The T-Birds did tack on one more before time expired, thanks to Jacob Smith, to round out the night’s scoring as he snapped in a shot while driving to the net.