The Soo Thunderbirds and Blind River Beavers have had quite a rivalry since the opening of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season and Wednesday night was no different.
With just a single point separating the two teams in the NOJHL's West Division standings the Beavers snuck away with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Thunderbirds at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
The opening period saw the Beavers carry the play to the Thunderbirds only to be turned back time and again by Thunderbirds netminder Michael Maulucci, who made a big stop on Art Clark midway through the opening period to keep the game scoreless.
Late in the period, the Thunderbirds opened the scoring as Matt Caria broke down the right wing and cut in towards the goal and beat Beavers goaltender Kevin King to give the Thunderbirds a lead to work with.
The lead didn't last very long however as Mike Bernardy got the Beavers back on even terms at 3:44 of the second period.
A deflection by Ryan Maunu at 11:14 of the middle period gave the Thunderbirds another lead but the Beavers, who showed resilience all night in battling back, again tied the game as Billy Schill scored at 15:38.
The third period is where things really began to get interesting.
A Drew Jarrett goal at 5:31 put the Thunderbirds back into the lead. A goal by Jeff Elliot, that deflected off of Beavers defender before beating King, at 10:12 gave the Thunderbirds a 4-2 lead.
Just over two minutes after the goal by Elliot, Beavers forward Jason Wiley ran into Maulucci in his crease which led to the Beavers forward receiving a major penalty for charging plus a game misconduct.
The Thunderbirds came out on the short end of the stick though as Chris Towell, in an effort to protect his goaltender, took on Wiley and has handed an instigating minor plus a fighting major and game misconduct.
The extra minor to Towell led to the Beavers having the man advantage, which they would not score on.
In the final minute of the third period, the Beavers pulled King in favour of an extra attacker. Down by a 4-2 score, the odds were stacked against the Beavers, but somebody forgot to tell them that.
Jacob Erway deposited a rebound past Maulucci with 33 seconds remaining to pull to within one goal. Then, with King again on the bench, Matthew Buha, who was an early season pickup from the Soo (Mich.) Indians of the North American Hockey League, cut in front of the net and roofed a shot past Maulucci to tie the game with just 20 seconds left.
Buha wasted little time in the overtime period reaffirming his spot as the Beavers hero as he scored another highlight reel goal just 22 seconds into overtime to seal the 5-4 come-from-behind victory for the Beavers.
Beavers' coach Jim Capy was pleased that his club was able to pick up the two points, especially on the road in what he called a "building that's tough to win in" referring to the Rhodes Arena
"I don't think we gave them a lot of chances," Capy said. "The key thing is that (our players) didn't quit. You've got two teams that are pretty evenly matched. The first 58 minutes though Maulucci was the difference. We could have folded when it was 4-2 but we found a way to win in a building that's tough to win in."
On the other hand Toot Kovacs, coach of the Thunderbirds was disappointed that his team could not hold onto their lead.
"We collapsed," a visibly disappointed Kovacs said. "There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Whether you're up two goals or down two goals, the game remains the same. Hopefully we learned from out mistakes. We started slow but we came back. (We've) never played a full 60 minutes."
Both coaches also had different views on the incident in the third period involving Maulucci being hit by Wiley of the Beavers.
"That's the second time they've ran our goalie," Kovacs said. "(Wiley) made no intention to miss our goalie."
"(Wiley's) not a guy that's going to go do that," Capy said.
With the point, the Thunderbirds did manage to keep pace with the Beavers as the two teams now sit tied for second spot in the West Division standings with 36 points each. The Beavers do hold an edge in wins – 17 compared to the Thunderbirds 16 – and they also hold two games in hand on the locals.
The Thunderbirds will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when they take on the Manitoulin Wild at the John Rhodes Community Centre. Game time is 2 p.m.