The Soo Thunderbirds picked up a 7-4 Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League win over the French River Rapids on Saturday at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
A trio of goals in the third period turned out to be the difference for the Thunderbirds in the victory.
French River opened the scoring 4:11 into the contest when Spencer Hughes went to the net and redirected a pass from Griffin Simpson past Thunderbirds starter Noah Metivier.
The Thunderbirds got on the board at 14:36 when Brock Santa Maria circled the Rapids zone, went around the French River net and hit Alfred Rotiroti in the slot, who proceeded to beat French River goaltender Justin DiLauro.
Andrew Gibson gave the Thunderbirds the lead on the front end of a 5-on-3 power play when he beat DiLauro high stick side at 15:50.
Just 13 seconds later, the Thunderbirds extended the lead when Russell Oldham jumped in a rebound in close and beat DiLauro, also on the power play.
The teams traded goals 19 seconds apart in the second period.
Kelsey Ouellet beat DiLauro with a shot through traffic from the left circle high short side at 9:37 to give the Thunderbirds a 4-1 lead, but Chase Lefebvre jumped on a rebound of a shot by Levi Siau and beat Metivier at 9:56 to cut into the Sault lead.
The Rapids cut the lead to 4-3 just 54 seconds into the third period when Dominik Godin beat Metivier on a rebound in close on the power play.
The Thunderbirds made it 5-3 when Cooper Foster took a pass in the slot from Ouellet in the corner and beat DiLauro at 2:31.
Michael Chaffay made it 6-3 Thunderbirds when he scored on a loose puck during a scramble in close at 9:08.
Lefebvre made it 6-4 at 16:27 when he had his initial redirection stopped but proceeded to score on a rebound with the Rapids on the power play and DiLauro on the bench for an extra attacker.
Chaffay sealed the win with his second of the night, scoring into an empty net with 2:17 to go.
Ouellet paced the Thunderbirds offensively with a goal and three assists.
Chaffay had two goals and an assist for the Thunderbirds in the win while Foster also had three points with a goal and two assists.
Metivier made 23 saves for the Thunderbirds.
DiLauro made 38 saves for the Rapids.
Siau and Simpson had a pair of assists each for the Rapids.
Having won two straight and three of four since the NOJHL resumed play earlier this month, the Thunderbirds improve to 22-5-2-3 with the win and sit seven points ahead of the Soo (Mich.) Eagles atop the NOJHL’s West Division.
The Rapids fall to 17-17-1-0 with the loss.
The Thunderbirds continue a six-game homestand on Wednesday night against the Eagles.
Puck drop at the John Rhodes Community Centre is set for 7:30 p.m.