For the first time since Dec. 17, the Soo Thunderbirds were in action on Friday night.
As the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League returned to play this week, the Thunderbirds picked up a 6-2 win over the Greater Sudbury Cubs at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the game as Cooper Foster took a pass in the slot from Michael Chaffay and beat Cubs netminder Jake Marois stick side.
The locals went ahead by a pair when Russell Oldham beat Marois with a shot from the high slot stick side at 3:20 of the opening period.
Sudbury got on the board 25 seconds into the second period when Josh Boucher took a pass in cluse from Jaxon Bedard and shifted to his forehand before beating Thunderbirds goaltender Noah Zeppa on the power play.
Dharan Cap restored the two-goal lead for the Thunderbirds at 7:29 when he jumped on a rebound in close and beat Marois to make it 3-1 Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds took a 4-1 lead at 5:27 of the third period when defenceman Andrew Gibson took a pass in the high slot from Brock Santa Maria and beat Marois high glove on the power play.
Just 2:06 later, Kelsey Ouellet made it 5-1 Thunderbirds with a power play goal of his own. The rookie forward beat Marois with a shot from the slot, also high glove.
Kyler Campbell made it 5-2 when he broke down the left wing on a 2-on-1 and beat Zeppa from the top of the left circle glove side at 15:06.
Cap would pick up his second goal of the night at 17:47 to wrap up the scoring for the Thunderbirds.
Zeppa made 20 saves for the Thunderbirds while Marois stopped 34 shots for the Cubs.
In addition to Cap’s two-goal night, Foster, Gibson, and Chaffay also had multi-point nights for the Thunderbirds.
Forster had a pair of assists in addition to scoring a goal while Gibson had one of each.
Chaffay finished the night with a pair of helpers.
With the win, the Thunderbirds improve to 20-4-2-3 and remain eight points ahead of the Soo (Mich) Eagles, who also won on Friday night.
Greater Sudbury falls to 14-11-1-0 with the loss.
The Thunderbirds return to action on Saturday night at home against the Powassan Voodoos. Puck drop at the John Rhodes Community Centre is set for 7 p.m.