NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016
Thunderbirds handle Rapids
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds got multi-point nights from seven different skaters en route to a 9-2 victory over the French River Rapids Friday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Essar Centre.
Sault Ste. Marie opened the scoring midway through the opening frame as Matt Pinder picked up his 18th goal of the season.
The home side added to their lead in the latter stages of the first thanks to a Matthew Busby effort at 18:17.
Taylor Karr’s fifth of the campaign put French River on the board 47 seconds into the middle stanza.
However the T-Birds came right back and tacked on two of the own in rapid succession on efforts supplied by Matthew Caruso and his brother Michael Caruso.
Eric Paquette’s first NOJHL goal brought the Rapids to within 4-2 but the Soo three times in the latter stages of the period to break it open on tallies by Jaren Bellini, Caleb Boman and Michael Caruso’s second of the night.
The marker for T-Birds defenceman Boman was his 21st career goal, which set a new Thunderbirds record for most career goals by a D-man, passing Justin Shelleby (2004-2006) and Bronson Kovacs (2006-2010), who both shared the previous record with 20.
Izaak Del Mastro and Bellini finished things off offensively in the third for the Thunderbirds.
Nathan Hebert and Ryan Mulligan dished out three assists apiece for the winning side.
Shots on goal favoured the Soo by a 49-12 count with Connor Ryckman picking up the triumph.
Kyle Martelle started for French River and suffered the loss seeing 37 attempts fired his way in two periods of work.
Zach Mills played the third for the Rapids and handled 10 of 12 in relief.
With files from Matt Stefano, Soo Thunderbirds Communications