Friday, April 20, 2012

Thunderbirds to play for Dudley-Hewitt title

Press Release sent to the World of Junior Hockey

THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds are off to the championship game of the Dudley-Hewitt Cup Central Canada Junior A Hockey tournament in Thunder Bay.

The Soo got three points apiece from the trio Kevin Michelcavage, Brett Campbell and Nick Romano as they skated to an 8-5 victory over the Thunder Bay North Stars in Friday’s semifinal contest at the Fort William Gardens.

Sault Ste. Marie will now face the Stouffville Spirit in Saturday’s title game at 7:30 p.m. with the Dudley-Hewitt Cup winner moving on to represent the region at the Royal Bank Cup in Humboldt, Sask., May 5-13.

Michelcavage opened the scoring at 5:57 of the first period as he scored for the third consecutive game.

A fortuitous bounce allowed Thunder Bay to notch the equalizer, on the power play, as a Tyler Osborne dump in caromed off a stanchion out in front to Sam Dubinsky who snapped a quick shot past John Kleinhans at 7:15.

The Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League champion Thunderbirds roared back with a pair of strikes to grab a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes thanks to efforts from Matt Amadio with the man advantage and a Jake Wright tally.

Micky Sartoretto had a tap-in to put the Soo up by three at 11:37 of the middle frame as he finished off the work of Romano and Josh Hicks.

After Brennen Dubchak pulled Thunder Bay to back within two at 14:25 the T-Birds answered right back 46 seconds later and Brett Campbell finished off a three on one sliding one through the legs of North Stars’ netminder Marc Nother.

The third period saw the saw just 16 shots recorded, but six of them found the back of the net in the high-scoring contest.

Quinn Rempel and Brandon Warmington bring the Stars to within one, but the Soo had an answer for each marker.

After Joey Couture off the Soo and the Stars’ Michael Orosey exchanged efforts later in the period the Thunderbirds finished off the late stages courtesy of Matt Amadio and Cody Zorsi, who scored into the empty net.

Shots on goal were 33-26 in favour of the Soo.

DHC NOTES: In attendance at Friday’s game was Kirk Lamb, chairman of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. Mr. Lamb presented the RBK player of the game award to Michelcavage of the Thunderbirds and Matt Kaarela of the North Stars. … Stouffville will go in search of the sixth straight Dudley-Hewitt Cup title for the Ontario Junior Hockey League in Saturday’s title contest.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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