Thunderbirds fly past Blind River

The Soo Thunderbirds remain unbeaten after a convincing 7-3 win in Blind River over the Beavers on Wednesday night. Through five games in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Thunderbirds sport a 4-0-1 record and sit in first place in the western division. The Beavers fall to 1-2 in the west. The Thunderbirds jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after swarming the Beavers with four goals during a two minute and 57 second span as Chez Gioia, Josh Leddy, Mark Evans and Aaron Anderson provided the scoring. After both teams played for more than 28 minutes without scoring a goal, Robbie Sandland scored for Blind River before Kelly Thomson and Mike MacMillan on the power play scored to give the Soo a 6-1 lead after two periods. Erik Bentley on the power play and Darren Rainville scored for Blind River in the third period. Thomson notched his second goal of the night on the power play to close the scoring. The Thunderbirds peppered Sault native Kevin King, who was named the game's second star, with 48 shots in the Blind River net. Thunderbirds' goaltender Mike Downer faced 26 shots. Tom Vernelli recorded three assists for the Soo while Adam Kauppi set up two others. The Thunderbirds return home for a pair of games this weekend. On Friday, the Thunderbirds host the Abitibi Eskimos at 7:30 p.m. while the Northern Michigan Black Bears visit on Sunday at 6 p.m. Both games are scheduled for the John Rhodes Centre. In another NOJHL contest on Wednesday night, the Sudbury Northern Wolves defeated the North Bay Skyhawks 4-3. Sudbury scored two power play goals in the final 1:50 to rally for the win. Christian Cundari scored three goals for the winners.