With the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs on the horizon and a trio of teams battling for a playoff spot in the West Division, Saturday night saw the Soo Thunderbirds pick up a pair of critical points.
The Thunderbirds skated to a 5-2 win over the Soo Eagles Saturday at the John Rhodes Community Centre in a game featuring two of those teams looking to punch tickets to the playoffs.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring just under six minutes into the contest as Daniel Beaupre cut in from the right side and was stopped initially by Eagles goaltender Anthony Zolezzi before scoring on the rebound.
The locals took a 2-0 lead when Quinn Myles drove the net and redirected a pass from Beaupre past Zolezzi at 11:32.
Grayson Ebrahim added to the lead in the second period when he tipped a shot by Kolby Fellinger at the top of the right circle past Zolezzi at 7:32.
The Eagles got on the board with 2:48 to go in the middle period when Darby McCarthy went to the net and redirected a pass from Alex Freund past Thunderbirds goaltender Kolton Bourret.
The Thunderbirds took a 4-1 lead in the third when Kelsey Ouellet beat Zolezzi with a shot from the top of the right circle off a faceoff win by Jacob Smith at 13:21.
Just 1:15 later, the Eagles cut the Thunderbirds lead back down to two goals as Alex Freund scored in a loose puck after a point shot by Drew Dellies was blocked in traffic in the slot.
Myles scored his second of the night with 31 seconds to go into an empty net.
In addition to the two-goal night from Myles, Beaupre and Ouellet had a goal and an assist each for the Thunderbirds while Smith assisted on a pair of goals.
Bourret made 34 saves.
Freund had a goal and an assist for the Eagles.
Zolezzi made 34 saves for the Eagles in the loss.
With the win, the Thunderbirds improve to 32-13-4-1 on the season and pull four points ahead of Espanola and fhe Eagles for third in the NOJHL's West Division.
The Eagles fall to 31-20-1-2 with the loss.
The Thunderbirds return to action on Sunday afternoon on the road in Massey when they take on the Elliot Lake Vikings. The two teams then meet again Tuesday night in the Sault.
The Eagles are off until March 8 when they host the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners in the opening game of a three-in-three stretch that will see the team host Blind River the following day before traveling to Espanola to take on the Paper Kings on March 10.
