SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Soo Eagles stormed back from a two-goal, third-period deficit, with three unanswered tallies to knock off the Soo Thunderbirds 3-2 Saturday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at John Rhodes Community Centre.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring late into the night’s initial man advantage when Jackson Truchan put a crisp feed into the crease from deep in the Eagles zone and saw Grayson Ebrahim steer it past netminder Anthony Zolezzi 2:24 into the match-up.
For Truchan, making his first appearance since back on November, 25, the helper gives him points in each of the previous 15 games he has played.
The score stayed 1-0 for the T-Birds into the middle session where they extended their edge late after Ebrahim set-up Samuel Lake driving down the slot where he went in and roofed a shot over the blocker of Zolezzi into the top left corner.
Cutting into the deficit 7:22 into the third, Jack Ohlund put the Eagles on the board as he fired a shot under the arm of goaltender Kolton Bourret.
The visitors then drew level a couple of shifts later, right off a draw, as Nolan Hendry stepped around a Thunderbirds skater and fed a wide-open Jack Paweski in front, who stuffed in his 13th of the campaign.
A two-man advantage with four minutes remaining helped the Eagles complete the comeback with Hendry once again setting up Paweski, who whistled in the game-winner from between the hash marks.
The Thunderbirds got their goalie out late to try and force overtime and had one final chance before time expired, that was blocked by a diving defender to help secure the road victory.
With the outcome, the Eagles move to 21-15-1-1 on the season and with the loss the Thunderbirds slip to 22-10-2-1.
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