Satisfying finish to up and down season for Eagles –2016-17 Season Reviews — NOJHL

The Soo Eagles, lone American squad in the 13-team Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League certainly saved its best for the post season in 2016-17.

The Eagles finished fourth in the NOJHL’s West Division, just clearing the .500 plateau at 27-26-2-1 for 57 points, just three behind third place Rayside-Balfour Canadians and four up on the fifth place Elliot Lake Wildcats.

As the fourth-place finisher, the Eagles had to play a Best of Three Preliminary Round playoff series against the Wildcats.

Home teams captured the wins in all three games of the series as the Eagles opened with a 4-1 win on home ice, but then fell in overtime at Elliot Lake 4-3 in the second game.

The Wildcats owned a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but the Eagles fought back, Roman Gaudet completing a comeback late in the period and then lifting the Eagles into the lead for the first and only time with his second goal of the game with 9:06 to go in overtime.

With that series win in the books, the Eagles faced the daunting task of lining up against cross-city/cross-border/cross-country rival, the Soo Thunderbirds.

Since rejoining the Northern League a year earlier, the Eagles have taken its lumps from the Thunderbirds, in particular in that first season. This time around the Eagles and Thunderbirds were 4-4 through their first eight meetings, most of them home-and-away weekends with the home teams earning the win in all eight matches.

On the final weekend of the regular season, the Thunderbirds bucked the trend, capturing a 5-3 win at Pullar Stadium on the American side and then wrapping up with a 4-2 win on home ice. With those scores, the T-Birds finished the campaign in top spot, 31 points ahead of the fourth place Eagles.

That clearly meant nothing though in the playoffs as the Eagles pulled off the shock of the season, dispatching the Thunderbirds in four straight games.

After capturing back-to-back 4-3 wins at the John Rhodes Community Center on the Canadian side of the border – the first win coming in double-overtime, the Eagles wrapped up the sweep with 3-2 and 4-2 wins on home ice.

Unfortunately, the Eagles were not able to sustain the emotion of the semi-final win, falling to the Blind River Beavers in five games in the West Division final.

The Beavers went on to play Eastern Division champion Powassan Voodoos in the Copeland Cup – McNamara Trophy Championship Series, bowing in four-straight.

For the Eagles, the offensive leadership came from Bradley Hofelich, a 20-year-old forward from Novi, MI who appeared in 50 games, scoring 28 goals and adding 35 assists for 63 points along with Chris Murphy, 21, from Livonia, MI with a 64-point (23g, 41a.) season, appearing in 51 games.

Jake Saxton, 20, from Interlochen, MI collected 53 points (22g, 31a) and played in all 56 games while Jacob Palmerio, 20, from Sault Ste. Marie, ON added 46 points (21g, 25a) in 49 games and William Casey, 19, from Coraopolis, PA rounded out the team’s top five with 45 points (16g, 29a) in 54 games.

Leading the way between the pipes was Kade Phipps, 19, from Perrysburg, OH who appeared in 31 games and posted a 17-11 record with a shutout. He posted a Goals Against Average of 3.10 and a Save Percentage of .906.

The Eagles received some notice in end of season hors, Saxton named as the winner of the Gilles Laperriere Trophy as the League’s Most Improved Player while Assistant Coach Bruno Bragagnolo received the Joe Drago Trophy as League Executive of the Year.

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