It was a battle of two of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s top teams and it’s no surprise that it came down to the wire.
The Soo Thunderbirds withstood a late push and held on for a 2-1 victory over the Hearst Lumberjacks on Thursday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
With the victory, the Thunderbirds extended their winning streak to 17 games.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring thanks toa goal by Kelsey Ouellet midway through the opening period.
Ouellet deflected a shot by Kyle Trottier at the left point past Hearst netminder Matteo Gennaro at 11:32.
Brock Santa Maria made it 2-0 Thunderbirds with 1:19 to go in the second period when he went to the net and scored on a back-door pass from Cooper Foster on the power play.
Hearst would get on the board at 8:33 of the third period when Zachary Demers beat Thunderbirds goaltender Noah Zeppa with a shot from the top of the right circle on the power play.
Foster finished the night with a pair of helpers for the Thunderbirds while Zeppa stopped 31 shots in the victory.
Gennaro made 25 saves for the Lumberjacks.
The Thunderbirds enter weekend action with a 37-5-2-3 record and have cliched top spot in the NOJHL’s West Division as well as the overall league standings.
The Thunderbirds return to action on Saturday night on the road against the Cochrane Crunch.
Hearst remains in a battle with the Timmins Rock for top spot in the East Division.
The team falls to 34-10-2-0 with Thursday’s loss and sits three points behind Timmins for top spot in the East.