The Soo Thunderbirds regrouped from a 3-0 deficit to score a big win over the Northern Michigan Black Bears.
The Black Bears grabbed an early 3-0 lead as the Thunderbirds struggled with their discipline but the locals regrouped after a timeout and stormed back to claim a 4-3 overtime win on Sunday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
The victory allowed the Thunderbirds to open a two point spread on top of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League's tight western division standings.
At 13-9-2-1, the Thunderbirds have posted 29 points while the Black Bears (11-6-3-2), who gained a point with the overtime loss, sit right behind with 27 points and three games in hand. The Manitoulin Wild (11-10-1-2) are four points back with one game in hand while Blind River (11-8-1-1) is five points back with four games in hand.
The teams trailing the Thunderbirds will now make up some of the games in hand as the Thunderbirds journey away from NOJHL competition to play in a junior tournament in Boston.
With the games in hand, the Thunderbirds could easily fall from the penthouse to the outhouse while on the sidelines. Blind River and Northern Michigan each play four times while Manitoulin has a pair of games scheduled before the Soo hits the ice for their next league game.
Sunday's game was delayed by 45 minutes as the Black Bears ran into bus trouble on the way to the game. The bus blew a tire and players were forced to return to St. Ignace and car pool to the Sault for the game.
The Black Bears opened up a 1-0 first period lead when Joel Relichlicz scored his first goal of the year on a quick shot that beat Thunderbirds goaltender Michael Maulucci from the right faceoff circle.
Before the period was over, the Black Bears were dealt a blow when top forward John Nogatch was assessed a 10 minute misconduct and a game misconduct after dealing some unpleasant words to the referee.
Chris Kraft scored his 12th of the season 1:10 into the second period before Steve Kruszewski added a power play marker at 10:28 for a 3-0 Northern Michigan lead.
After Thunderbirds head coach Toots Kovacs called a timeout following the third goal, the team regained their composure and began to mount a comeback with two goals before the period ended.
Billy Griffore put the Thunderbirds on the board at 14:54 when the forward cut across the ice and waited patiently for Black Bears goaltender Tony Stoehr to make the first move before sliding the puck past the sprawling netminder.
Kyle Rodgers notched his second of the season 1:24 later while short handed. NOJHL leading scorer Ryan Maunu fed a pass to Rodgers, who tipped the puck past Stoehr while falling to the ice.
Greyhounds prospect Jacob Lalonde tied the game 10:17 into the third period with his first goal as a Thunderbird when the talented forward slid a puck past a down and out Stoehr.
The Greyhounds connection again rewarded the Thunderbirds as defenseman Tyler McKinley scored the overtime winner with 1:10 remaining in the game.
"It was a nice comeback. The momentum changed midway through the second period after we took some selfish and uncalled for penalties in the first half of the game. It was also nice to see some other guys contribute," said Kovacs.
"Between (Matt) Caria, (Matt) Dias and Maunu, they have 103 points between them while the rest of team has 102 points. We talked about getting contributions from other players before the game and I think they responded to that."
Northern Michigan outshot the Thunderbirds 5-2 in the extra frame while each team totaled 29 shots in the game.
"We want to see Lalonde and McKinley in a Greyhounds uniform," said Kovacs. "We don't want them here forever. We will bring them down and hopefully get them ready for Craig (Hartsburg) and Denny (Lambert).
"Part of our affiliation agreement with them is to help each other out. They helped us by sending them down now we will work with them, give them some playing time and get them ready to go back up.
"Both of those guys are going to be quality OHLers. McKinley needs to work on the defensive side of his game while I predict that Lalonde will be a dominate hard-nosed winger in the Ontario Hockey League. He has great attitude and is just a great all-around person."
The status of both McKinley and Lalonde was expected to be reevaluated on Monday evening by Hounds general manger Dave Torrie and head coach Craig Hartsburg.
Caria recorded two assists for the Thunderbirds while Lalonde added another. Jarrad Lavender chipped in a pair of helpers for the Black Bears.
The Thunderbirds will return to NOJHL action on Friday, Dec. 17 as they host the Abitibi Eskimos at 7:30 p.m. at the Rhodes.
(All photos provided courtesy of Jim Egan.)