NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017
Thunderbirds rally to top Canadians
CHELMSFORD, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds stormed back with three third period tallies to pull out a 5-4 victory over the Rayside-Balfour Canadians Sunday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Chelmsford Arena.
Sault Ste. Marie opened the scoring 6:41 into the contest on Keenan Eddy’s ninth marker of the season.
Rayside-Balfour battled back however by striking three times in the latter half of the session to go up 3-1.
After Kyle Liinamaa tied it at 13:59, the Canadians got two more in the final two minutes as Andre Frappier and Tristan Simm connected 30 seconds apart to put the home side up by a pair after one.
Action in the middle stanza saw the Thunderbirds pull to within a goal midway through the frame as Matthew Caruso notched his team-leading 24th tally of the campaign.
Chad Denault put Raside-Balfour back up by two 6:24 into the third, but the T-Birds came right back on Mike Winn’s first of 2016-17 to make it 4-3 with 12:15 remaining in regulation.
The back and forth affair saw the Soo use the power play to tie things up at 13:09 as Austin Kozluk collected his 18th on an assist from Caruso.
Then while up a man again in the late going the Thunderbirds got the game-winner at 17:48 as Sean Emmerson supplied his first NOJHL goal to complete the come from behind win.
Zach Senecal had two assists for the Soo on the night as did Liinamaa.
Brandon Gordon made 33 saves to post the triumph for the T-Birds while Cameron Lamour faced 36 shots in defeat for the Canadians.
