SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds rode the strength of a seven-goal second period to roll to an 11-2 romp over the Espanola Express Sunday afternoon in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at John Rhodes Community Centre.
Nick Smith became the first NOJHL skater to reach the 30-goal plateau this season as he connected 53 seconds after the opening face-off.
Kaidan MacDonald then made it 2-0 at 13:11 as Sault Ste. Marie added to their early lead.
Espanola answered however on the next shift as Henty Laukkanen put the visitors on the board at 13:39.
Lucas Theriault got that back for the Thunderbirds though before the first period was complete as he finished off the work of Smith and Camaryn Baber, who both picked up their 24th assists of the campaign.
From there it was all Soo in the second as they blew it open with the seven unanswered goals to take complete command.
Mark Tassone had two of the markers in the session while Alex Acosta, Bradon Caruso, Brendan Miller, Austin Heinrich and Tyler Malpass supplied singles.
Each side would score once in the final frame to wrap things up with Caruso connecting for the Thunderbirds while Logan Fennema added one for Espanola.
Camaryn Baber and Noah Solinger dished out three assists apiece for the Soo in the one-sided result with 10 different skaters having multi-point contests.
Brandon Gordon made 17 stops to record the win.
Ryan Hale and Adam Scott both saw time in net in defeat with the duo seeing 44 shots fired their way.
Photos courtesy of James Egan’s Sports Photography
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