NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013
Thunderbirds win streak reaches double digits
SAULT STE. MARIE – Make it 10 victories in a row for the Soo Thunderbirds.
Their latest triumph came Sunday afternoon as they edged the visiting Espanola Rivermen 2-1 in a hard-fought Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Essar Centre.
This fast-paced goaltender’s duel between Sault Ste. Marie’s Joel Horodziejczyk and Espanola’s Joakim Dutras saw the duo combine to make 66 stops in this tightly contested match-up.
The only goal of the opening period came off the stick of Thunderbirds’ forward Nicholas Tassone, who notched his fifth tally of the season at 3:35.
Nathan Hebert increased the cushion to 2-0 at 13:37 goal of the middle stanza in what turned out to be the game-winning marker.
Brandon Janke put Espanola on the board four minutes later to narrow the margin, but neither netminder would bulge the rest of the way with Horodziejczyk and Jutras both making multiple impressive stops to stymie opposing shooters.
With their third consecutive 2-1 victory and 10 straight triumph overall the league-leading T-Birds improved to 15-2 on the season while Espanola slipped to 10-6 with the setback.
Shots on goal finished up 39-30 in Sault Ste. Marie’s favour.
NOJHL play resumes Monday as the North Bay Trappers host the Abitibi Eskimos in a 7 p.m. start at West Ferris Arena.
