Birds sweep border battle
A shorthanded goal by rookie forward Camaryn Baber with less than five minutes to play in the third period lifted the Soo Thunderbirds to a 4-2 win over the Soo Eagles on Saturday and a sweep of the border battle weekend series between the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League rivals.
Rookie defenseman Bradon Caruso then capped the home-ice triumph for the Thunderbirds with an empty-net tally, his second goal of the game.
Noah Solinger had an earlier goal for the Thunderbirds, who upended the Eagles 3-1 on Friday in the Michigan Soo.
Nick Techel and Kobe Keller scored their fifth goals of the season apiece in a losing effort for the Eagles.
For Baber, a third-round pick of the Saginaw Spirit at the 2017 Ontario Hockey League draft, his game-winning, third-period goal was the first of his NOJHL career.
Baber — who has signed with Saginaw — has been an effective, hard-driven performer for coach John Parco’s T-Birds in the early going of this season but despite numerous good scoring chances, the relentless rookie had been unable to find the back of the net until he came through with the game-winner on Saturday.
Meanwhile, riding the effective coaching of Parco, the Thunderbirds first-year bench boss, the Soo squad has a record of 6-2-1 through nine games in what was supposed to be a major rebuild season.
On the other side of the border, the Eagles have had a roller-coaster start to the season.
After losing their first two games of the season, the Eagles won their next two before dropping a pair to the Thunderbirds to lower their record to 2-4-0.