Thunderbirds drop battle of birds

The Soo Thunderbirds had the defending Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League champion North Bay Skyhawks right where they wanted them, but couldn't manage to seal the deal.

The Thunderbirds held a 5-3 lead over the Skyhawks heading into the third period before the Hawks stormed back to win the game 6-5 at the John Rhodes Community Centre on Friday night.

A lack of discipline in a number of areas, including penalties and mental mistakes at key times led to the loss.

The opening period saw plenty of scoring as the two teams came out of the gates with their eyes on a victory.

North Bay opened the scoring as Joey Imbeau, who had a solid night for the Hawks, scored his first goal of the evening on the power play at 3:52.

Just one minute later, the Thunderbirds tied the scoring as Tyler Gendron, a call-up from the Soo North Stars, scored his first junior hockey goal. Mark Thorburn gave the Thunderbirds a 2-1 edge when he beat North Bay goaltender Stuart Fricke on the short side at 11:23.

The Skyhawks pulled even at 12:06 when Chase Gallacher scored on another North Bay power play.

But the Thunderbirds got the lead back five minutes later as Justin Shelleby scored at 17:32 and then Pat Keating scored at 18:28 on a breakaway to send the game into the second period with the Thunderbirds leading by a 4-2 score.

The teams traded goals in the second period as Derek MacKay gave the Thunderbirds a 5-2 lead at 2:18 and Imbeau scored his second goal of the game for the Skyhawks to cut the lead to 5-3.

The third period is where the Skyhawks took advantage of their opportunities. After an unassisted goal by Dustin McCrank goal at 8:11, the Skyhawks picked up two more power play goals, to bring their total to four in the game, as Tyler Perry scored at 11:42 to tie the game at 5-5.

Imbeau, who was the second star of the game, broke the tie at 16:35 to give the Skyhawks win number five on the season as they improve their record to 5-1-1.

With the loss, the Thunderbirds record drops to 5-3-0, good for second spot in the NOJHL's West Division.

Thunderbirds coach Zoltan Kovacs was visibly upset with the loss following the game and said that a lack of discipline was the key for the Skyhawks being able to come out of the game with two points.

"We had the defending league champions down 5-3 and we let them back in," Kovacs said. "We need to learn from (our mistakes). I just think it was a lack of discipline. It was simple things (like missing checks defensively)."

Kovacs added that it wasn't any one specific point that caused the loss.

"We don't want any pointing fingers," the rookie NOJHL coach added. "We just want to learn from our loss."

In goal Mike Maulucci stopped 24 shots in the loss while Fricke picked up the win stopping 26 shots.

The Hawks have little time to soak up the win though as they are set to play Northern Michigan in St. Ignace on Saturday night.

The Thunderbirds are now off until next weekend when they take to the road for three games in three nights.

Friday night will see the Thunderbirds in Manitoulin taking on the Wild, Saturday the locals take on Abitibi and Sunday has an afternoon tilt against the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats.

Next home action for the Thunderbirds will be on Oct. 29 when the Manitoulin Wild visits the John Rhodes Community Centre for a 7:30 p.m. start.

PHOTO: Thunderbirds forward Chris Towell (#11) battles North Bay's Josh Merson in the second period. (All photos courtesy of Jim Egan.)