Thunderbirds fight off Beavers (5 photos)

It is pretty safe to say that the Soo Thunderbirds look forward to playing the Blind River Beavers.

By way of a 7-1 victory over the Beavers on Sunday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre, the Thunderbirds improved their record against the Beavers to 8-1. In the process, the Thunderbirds have outscored the Beavers 60-29.

A strong first period paced the Thunderbirds as they opened up a 4-0 lead en route to the victory.

Chris Towell opened the scoring just 55 seconds in as he converted an early scoring chance past Blind River goaltender Donnie Bruni. Shortly after, Ryan Maunu increased the lead to 2-0 when he slid a perfect feed from Mike McMillan past Bruni. Towell also picked up an assist on the play.

Towell capped off his strong offensive night with his second goal prior to the midway point of the period while Nick Minardi scored his first of two goals to send the game into the second period with the Thunderbirds holding a 4-0 edge.

After Minardi and Jake Reid of the Beavers traded goals to make the score 5-1 for the Thunderbirds, rookie forward Tyler Gendron scored a pair of goals to cap off the scoring, giving the locals the 7-1 victory.

"I was really happy with the line of McGee, McNally, and Minardi," said Thunderbirds coach Toots Kovacs following the win. "Before the game we asked those guys to finish every check, work down low and provide some spark for us. They gave us a spark when we needed it.

"We're always looking to McMillan, Maunu and Towell," Kovacs added. "When you get three guys that aren't well known and are all rookies are welcome contributions."

Kovacs commented on his team's need to rebound from their loss on Friday night to Sudbury.

"They wanted to rebound from Friday night," Kovacs said. "They played a good third period and wanted to pick up where they left off. They wanted to salvage two points out of a possible four this weekend."

On the other side of the coin, Beavers coach Jim Capy was not pleased with his club's effort, although he did say that he was happy with the play of Don Bruni in goal.

"I thought Donnie Bruni played an excellent game," said Capy. "It could have been a lot worse if not for him. We're playing a team where we have to play a certain way to have an opportunity to beat these guys."

Both teams are back in action on Saturday night as the Beavers have a home date with the Sudbury Northern Wolves while the Thunderbirds host the Manitoulin Islanders in a 7:30 p.m. Start.

(Photos courtesy of Jim Egan.)