NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016
Thunderbirds clip Canadians 4-1
CHELMSFORD, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds got a goal and an assist from Gage Stepney to help lift them to a 4-1 triumph over the Rayside-Balfour Canadians Sunday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at Chelmsford Arena.
Sault Ste. Marie carried the play territorially in the opening 20 minutes outshooting Rayside-Balfour 12-3, but could not solve Canadians’ starter Cameron Lamour.
Continuing to mount the pressure, the Thunderbirds were rewarded with the night’s first marker, 6:08 into middle stanza, as Stepney collected his seventh of the season on set-ups from Jake Behse and Nick Smith.
Shots on net in the frame were 11-10 in favour of the Soo.
Greg Smith made it 2-0 for the T-Birds in the final session as he notched his third of the campaign with 9:09 remaining.
A man advantage marker courtesy of Keegan Stevenson a couple minutes later added to the Thunderbirds cushion before Austin Kozluk added one at even strength for his side at 16:56.
Rayside-Balfour would dash Brandon Gordon’s shutout bid with 100 seconds to go as Kris Hamlin scored on the power play for his second in a Canadians’ jersey to round out the night’s scoring.
Ryan Mulligan dished out two assists for the Soo in the win.
Gordon finished with 18 saves to record the victory for the T-Birds while Lamour faced 36 shots in defeat for RBC.
