Photos: Bob Davies
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds rode the strength of two tallies in each period as they went on to defeat the Cochrane Crunch 6-1 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair at John Rhodes Community Centre.
A solid forecheck helped the Thunderbirds score first as Austin Fellinger put a rising attempt towards the net from the right point that hit a Crunch player up high and fell right to Daniel Beaupre, who buried his eight goal of the season.
Tacking on another before the intermission, Wyatt Marlow banked one from a sharp angle off Cochrane netminder Jake Dubinsky and in, moments after putting one off the post with a close-range chance at 17:36.
A third Sault Ste. Marie tally came early in the middle session, while on the power play, and saw Alex Remenda stuff in his first goal in his NOJHL debut, while parked at close range.
Not done there, the Soo struck again a couple of shifts later as Tyler Boudreau picked off a play in the neutral zone, then skated into the Crunch zone and set-up Jackson Truchan, who used some clever stick work in close and deposited his 11th of the season at 5:33.
Adding to their lead early in the third Dharan Cap finished off a give-and-go with Truchan from in close to make it 5-0.
The Crunch countered right off the draw and got on the board moments later with Mathieu Roy finishing off a one-handed feed from Liam Boswell that eluded T-Birds goalkeeper Kolton Bourret.
The Thunderbirds put the game away however with a man advantage effort courtesy of Kaden Dundas at 8:27 as he came in the back door and buried a cross-crease pass from Cap.
With the victory, the Soo moved to 13-7-2-1 on the year while Cochrane dropped to 5-17-1-0 in defeat.
