SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Adam Pszeniczny’s second goal of the game, coming with under a minute to go, proved to be the decider Saturday night as the Soo Thunderbirds edged the Blind River Beavers 4-3 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at John Rhodes Community Centre.
Special teams saw each side connect on the power play in the latter stages of the first period.
Pszeniczny also clicked for the Thunderbirds while they were up a skater at 16:44 as he banged in a down-low feed from Rhys Bonvie that eluded Beavers’ netminder Justin Sullivan, for his 15th of the season.
Blind River matched that in the final minute when Ilian Danilov finished off a Ryder Hill dish and whipped it past Sault Ste. Marie’s Cameron Boville from the right circle.
That resulted in Hill and Danilov running point streaks to nine and five respectively.
The Beavers had a chance to take the lead on a Geoffrey Boates penalty shot at 4:36 after being hauled down on a breakaway, only to be denied when his attempt rang off the post and sailed wide.
The T-Birds then went back in front in the middle frame as Deven Jones-McDonald reached the 20-goal plateau by blasting in a one-timer off a nice toe-drag move from Declan Gallivan.
Remaining a one-goal game into the third period, Danilov notched his second extra-man effort early as he stuffed in the leftovers off a Mattis Lafond shot from the high slot.
Boates then put Blind River ahead off an crisp rush up-ice with this shot, unlike the one on his penalty shot, hitting iron and going in at 7:12.
It was then the T-Birds’ turn to supply an equalizer as Landon Hill flew down the right wing and banked in a shot from a sharp angle to give him points in 10 straight, with just under six minutes remaining in regulation.
Then with overtime looming, Pszeniczny got the late game-winner as he buried an in-close set-up from Gavin Killoran.
The Beavers then got their netminder out for an extra skater, but the Soo held on to pick up the victory.
That sees the Thunderbirds improve to 26-14-2-2 while the narrow setback drops Blind River to 14-26-0-4.
