Winning has seemingly come natural for the Soo Thunderbirds this season, especially since returning to action in early February after an extended Christmas break for the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League due to COVID-19.
The Thunderbirds picked up a 5-2 win over the Soo (Mich.) Eagles on Tuesday night at Pullar Stadium and have now won 11 straight games as a result.
After the teams traded goals in the opening period, the Thunderbirds scored four of the next five goals in the game to pick up the victory.
Alfred Rotiroti opened the scoring midway through the opening period when he scored from the bottom of the right faceoff circle after a shot from Kenny Belanger Jr. missed the net and deflected off the end boards.
Dylan Bachalo for the Eagles on the board with a power play goal with 5:38 to go in the opening period.
Bachalo had his initial shot blocked on the play before taking a pass from Zach Briskey and beating Thunderbirds goaltender Noah Zeppa.
Samuel Lake gave the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead at 8:16 of the second period when he skated down the left wing and beat Eagles goaltender Gabe Rosek high short side.
With 2:56 to go in the period, Michael Chaffay took a feed in the slot from Cooper Foster below the goalline and beat Rosek stick side to make it 3-1.
In the third period, Charlie Salem pulled the Eagles to within one when he converted a feed from Brian Fiddes in close.
Just 32 seconds later though, Belanger made it 4-2 when he sent a backhand to the Eagles goal that handcuffed Rosek.
Kelsey Ouellet capped off the scoring with 49 seconds to go with an empty net goal.
Zeppa made 29 saves for the Thunderbirds while Rosek stopped 31 shots for the Eagles.
With the win, the Thunderbirds improve to 31-5-2-3.
The loss drops the Eagles record to 24-9-2-1.
Next up for the Thunderbirds is a two-game road trip that will take the team to Hearst to face the Lumberjacks on Friday and Timmins to take on the Rock on Saturday.