Thunderbirds double-up Vikings

A well-balanced offensive effort and goals from six different players lifted the Soo Thunderbirds to a 6-3 victory over the Elliot Lake Vikings in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting Friday at Massey & District Community Arena.

Sault Ste. Marie began the scoring just over two minutes in when Charlie Munroe put an attempt towards the target from the top of the right circle that clipped off teammate Jonathan Sonedecker parked in front and in for a goal early into his NOJHL debut.

Answering with an equalizer at 12:15, Elliot Lake kept a play in the Thunderbirds’ zone which allowed Nate Dugwell to fire a feed over to Owen Kahl, who was initially stopped by netminder Maverick Fletcher, but was quick to knock in the rebound.

The Soo came back when Daniel Beaupre made a nice toe drag and whipped a shot high over the glove of a downed Vikings’ goalkeeper Sam Keene.

The visitors then went up by a pair as Thomas Degagne jammed in a loose puck off a goal-mouth scramble.

Munroe collected his initial league tally before the first intermission off a solid Soo forecheck that allowed him to whip one upstairs on Keene.

Heading to the middle stanza, Elliot Lake got one back when Nathan Marincola lifted a shot high over the blocker of Fletcher at 16:56.

Some more Marincola magic saw him wheel up ice in transition and put a pass across to Max Ciesielski on the right side, where he neatly picked the bottom corner to make it a 4-3 game after 40 minutes. In the third, the Soo added to their edge when Quinn Myles converted from between the hash marks at 4:20.

The Thunderbirds then rounded out the scoring on a Callum McAuley man advantage effort.

With the win the Thunderbirds improved to 22-9-2-1 overall while the Vikings dropped to 5-24-1-4.