SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Getting goals from five different players, the Espanola Paper Kings used their balanced attack to clip the Soo Thunderbirds 5-4 Sunday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at John Rhodes Community Centre.
The Thunderbirds took flight 92 seconds into the contest when Jaxon Turnbull tallied for a second straight game, and the third time in four outings, by coming out from behind the net, then rotating and roofing a shot over the shoulder of Paper Kings’ starter Jack Helkie.
Answering with an equalizer at 5:19, Espanola’s Emerson De Giacomo pounced on a turnover that landed in the slot and ripped it over the glove of Sault Ste. Marie’s Cameron Boville.
Going to work on the afternoon’s initial man advantage opportunity, the Paper Kings went in front thanks to Wyatt Farries, who took a feed between the circles from Graydon Guthrie down low and wired it in midway through the first.
Continuing to trade early tallies, the Soo drew level at 10:49 as an open James Legler pumped in a shot off a Deven Jones-McDonald set-up.
Back and forth they went with Joseph Coates connecting for the visitors to make it 3-2 as he slammed in a sharp cross-ice pass from Cameron Menard.
Returning from the first intermission, Espanola went up 4-2 when Luc Warner found Menard in a prime scoring area where he wired in his league-leading 18th goal of the season.
Heading to the third period, the T-Birds inched closer when Legler sent Jones-McDonald in alone where he used his lanky frame to move to his right and tuck one past Helkie with 4:10 to go in regulation.
Pushing hard for an equalizer, the Soo got Boville out for an extra attacker in the late going, but Guthrie connected from centre ice into an empty net to make it 5-3.
Battling until the end, the T-Birds’ Aiden Atkinson turned in the right circle and fired one in with eight seconds remaining to give his side one final chance.
However, the Paper Kings held on from there to secure the road victory and improve to 12-6-0-1 overall.
In defeat, the Soo slipped to 11-5-1-1.
