The Skyhawks streak hits 7 (updated)

Skyhawks forward Scott Britton nails the Soo's Ian Cosgrove. Photo by Lucas Punkari.

Story by Lucas Punkari

The North Bay Skyhawks continued their red-hot start to the NOJHL season on Sunday night, defeating the Soo Thunderbirds by a score of 5-3 at Memorial Gardens, to improve their record to 7-0.

The Skyhawks held a 5-1 lead early in the third period, before the Thunderbirds scored twice in a five minute span to cut the margin back to a two goal deficit, one that could have been closer if not for some solid goaltending by Riley Ross to keep the lead intact.

"I thought we stuck with the program in the first two periods, but the third was easily our worst period thus far this year," Skyhawks head coach Ian Swalucysnki said following the victory.

"Our penalty killers did a great job keeping us in the game, but we have to learn, and we’ll have to learn the hard way. If we keep taking stupid penalites like we had tonight, we’re going to lose games, and we’re going to lose them badly."

Solomon McCann led the way for the Skyhawks offensively, picking up a hat trick on his way to being selected the game’s first star.

"It’s all just the guys sticking to the way they can play," McCann explained as to the key to his three goal night.

"(Dustin) Fummerton’s strong on the puck and he makes a lot of moves, I drive wide and (Trent) Lizee hits guys. All of our success comes from the chemistry that we’re building together out there every night."

Andrew Glasser opened up the scoring for North Bay eight minutes into the first period, as he point shot deflected off of Ryan Dube’s glove and trickled into the back of the Thunderbirds net. McCann would get his first goal of the night, also on the power play, late in the first period to give the Skyhawks a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes.

The Soo cut the lead down to one near the midway point of the second, thanks to a 5-on-3 power play goal by Jerry Petingalo, however McCann scored his second of the night a few minutes later to put the lead back to a two-goal margin.

McCann completed his hat-trick a minute into the third period, with captain Kody Carnevale finding the back of the net shortly after, to make it a 5-1 lead for the Skyhawks. Nick Minardi and Tyler Evoy would both score midway through the frame for the Thunderbirds, but were unable to make things closer in the final minutes.

"They pretty much gave us a butt-kicking all night long," Thunderbirds head coach Pat Carricato said following the defeat.

"I can’t take anything away from North Bay," he said.

"They played well and they have a nice club over there. But tonight was just one of those nights where you try things and nothing works. We had some things going there late in the third period but by then it was too late."

With a perfect opening month now in the books, and the status as the team to beat throughout the rest of the season thrust onto the team’s shoulders, Swalucysnki hopes that the great start can carry throughout the rest of the campaign.

"We want to distance ourselves and take this ride for as long as it goes," said the Skyhawks head coach.

"There’s always pressure no matter where we are in the standings. Everybody plays better in our building because there’s 2000 fans in the stands every night, and everybody’s going to want to knock us off because we’re undefeated. So we’ve got to cowboy up, take on all comers, do our best and defend our team and our city. That’s the way we look at it, and hopefully we can do this for quite sometime."

The Skyhawks will head out on the road to face the Blind River Beavers on Saturday before returning home to face the Abitibi Eskimos next Sunday night.