The Soo Thunderbirds will head into the Dudley-Hewitt Cup in North Bay on a sour note after being swept in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series by the North Bay Skyhawks.
The Skyhawks and Thunderbirds, who will face each other in the opening game of the Dudley-Hewitt, met in game four of the NOJHL Championship on Saturday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre, a game that saw the Skyhawks come away with a 5-3 victory for the series sweep.
The Hawks opened the scoring just over six minutes in as Pat Power, who was named first star in the game, chipped a shot over the shoulder of Soo goaltender Casey Mapes to give the Hawks an early lead.
The Hawks then increased their lead early in the second period as Power scored on the power play at 4:40 to double the Hawks lead to 2-0.
Nathan Daly put the Hawks ahead by three just past the midway point of the period when he beat Mapes at 10:08 to send the game into the third with the locals trailing.
The Thunderbirds cut into the North Bay lead early in the third period when Josh Leddy scored while the Thunderbirds were on a two-man advantage to make the score 3-1.
The Hawks restored their three goal lead when Patrick Honeysett beat Mapes at 11:17. Daly then scored just over a minute later at 12:21 to make the score 5-1.
Mike MacMillan brought the locals to within three at 16:40 when he scored the second power play goal of the evening for the Thunderbirds.
Leddy then picked up his second power play goal of the evening at 18:43 to cut the lead to 5-3 but that's as close as the Thunderbirds would get as the Hawks held on for the win to clinch the NOJHL Championship.
Mapes was a busy man in the Soo goal stopping 25 shots in the defeat. The Skyhawks received a solid performance from Chris Hardill who turned aside 28 shots for the win.
Following the game, Thunderbirds head coach Jim Capy cited his team's lack of discipline as the main problem in the game four loss.
Veteran defenceman Ryan MacKay was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for high sticking late in the first period and was lost for the game.
Forward Kelly Thomson found himself serving a 10-minute misconduct in the second period, after which Alex Butkus was handed a 10-minute misconduct for arguing a minor penalty he received.
At the end of the second period and still heated from the earlier call, Butkus said something to referee Marc Baril, which subsequently assessed him a game misconduct.
"We didn't give ourselves a chance to win," Capy explained. "In three of the four games, discipline cost us. I thought our lack of discipline got us down early. That kind of takes the momentum away."
"Our leaders tonight weren't really our leaders. Those are key guys (taking those penalties)," Capy said in reference to the penalty situation. "Hopefully at the Dudley, the leaders will take the bull by the horns and be our leaders."
Capy went on to say that despite the sweep, his team played well enough to win in the first three games of the series, but the double overtime loss in game two was the pivotal game in the series.
"Game two was crucial," Capy said of the double overtime loss. "We played well enough to win but we didn't get the breaks we needed. I'm looking forward to (the Dudley-Hewitt tournament in North Bay) and so is our team. It's a second chance."
The loss in the championship marked the fourth straight season that the Thunderbirds made it to the finals only to lose.
In the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons, the Thunderbirds were beaten by perennial power Rayside Balfour and last season before dropping decisions to the Skyhawks the past two seasons. "We were in the league championship," Capy said. "We came into this season with two returnees and we've got nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of."
The Thunderbirds will now have a week of practices before heading to North Bay for the Dudley-Hewitt Cup, which features the top teams from the NOJHL, the Ontario Provincial Jr. A League as well as the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Action in the tournament kicks off on April 27 when the SIJHL and OPJHL champions face off at 2 p.m. The first action for the Hawks and Thunderbirds will be that evening when the two teams take on each other at 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Jim Egan