A stretch of four games on the road wrapped up for the Soo Thunderbirds on Sunday afternoon on a sour note in Espanola.
The Thunderbirds dropped a 5-3 decision to the Espanola Paper Kings Sunday.
The loss is the Thunderbirds third straight setback.
Following is a full release from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League on Sunday's game.
ESPANOLA, Ont. – Converting swiftly in all three periods aided in a 5-3 victory by the Espanola Paper Kings over the Soo Thunderbirds Sunday afternoon in a chippy Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Regional Recreation Complex.
It began when a crisp Luke Hill stretch pass sent teammate Grant Booth in alone on a breakaway where the Espanola forward darted in and wired a shot past Sault Ste. Marie starter Lincoln Mellenthin, three and a half minutes into the proceedings.
Moving to the middle frame, the Paper Kings potted a pair of early efforts to go ahead by three.
Graydon Guthrie made it 2-0, via the power play at 1:38, as he slammed in a spinning back pass from Cameron Menard into the open side.
Menard then connected moments after Jason Galante was thwarted on a partial break as he corralled the loose puck and drove to the slot where he whipped his chance by the Soo netminder.
The Thunderbirds got one back late in the second thanks to James Legler clicking on the power play at 18:48.
On the marker, Legler jumped on a rebound off a Bryan Fenlon point blast and snapped it over the pad of a downed James Meredith in the Espanola net.
Third period play saw another rapid response supplied by the home side as Menard pumped a rising attempt to the target from between the circles that Mellenthin could not quite contain, which allowed Galante to poke in the loose puck at 2:49.
Drawing closer, Legler picked up his second of the contest as he redirected in a Tyler Neveau shot from the point with six and a half minutes to play.
Adding some insurance while up a skater, the Menard-Guthrie combo contributed once more with the latter chipping in a Menard feed with under five minutes to go.
The T-Birds got one more just prior to time expiring, with Legler collecting his third point of the day as he fired a pass across to Aiden Atkinson, who promptly whistled it by a diving Meredith to cap off the scoring.
With the win, the Paper Kings moved to .500 on the season, improving to 7-7-1-0 and in defeat, the Thunderbirds dipped to an identical 7-7-1-0 record.