Hot in the NOJHL West

By Randy Russon
October 16, 2017
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Rayside-Balfour Canadians, Soo Eagles and Soo Thunderbirds are three teams from the West Division who are on a roll in the 12-member Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.

RAYSIDE-BALFOUR

Backed by the presence of veteran goalie MacKenzie Savard, formerly of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League, coach Dave Clancy’s Canadians have won four straight games and eight of their last 10 to improve their overall record to 10-4-0.

Sparkling between the pipes, Savard has a record of 8-2-0 to go with a 1.78 goals against average and .951 save percentage.

Meanwhile, a trio of 2000 birth year defensemen from Greater Sudbury have been putting up big points for Rayside thus far.

Jordan Spadafore has 1 goal, 11 assists, 12 points while Ethan Lavallee has 3 goals, 8 assists, 11 points and Brandon Atkins has 2 goals, 7 assists, 9 points.

SOO EAGLES

Coach Jim Capy’s Eagles have won four of their last five games to improve to 6-5-0 on the season.

Forwards Kobe Keller, Christian Bardarson and Jake Palmerio have been lighting the lamp for the Michigan Soo with a combined 23 goals in 11 games.

In the net, rookie Carter McPhail has a 5-2-0 record, 1.99 goals against average and .936 save percentage.

SOO T-BIRDS

In what was supposed to be a major rebuild campaign, crackerjack first-year coach John Parco has been getting major mileage out of a rag tag outfit that has won six straight games and has an overall record of 12-3-1.

Noah Solinger leads the T-Bird scoring chart with 4 goals, 13 assists, 17 points while pint-sized pivot Nick Smith has potted 10 goals.

The T-Birds have been getting exceptional work from their goalies as veteran Brandon Gordon has a record of 6-2-1 to go with a 1.77 goals against average and .944 save percentage while rookie Eric Schuch has 6-1-0, 2.00 and .933 numbers.