Halifax Thunderbirds used a nine-goal first quarter to propel themselves to victory, defeating the Saskatchewan Rush 17-9 on Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,595 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.
“I think we came out with a lot of energy coming off a loss. Also, avenging a loss to these guys earlier in the year, we had a lot of juice coming into this game,” said Thunderbirds forward Mike Robinson, who scored three goals and seven points.
For the Rush, this was an overall team loss. The goaltending was bad, the defence allowed some quality chances and the offence wasn’t scoring, especially in the first quarter to stop some of Halifax’s momentum.
“We didn’t score. We weren’t scoring in the first quarter and they were. They were hot in the first. They are a team that comes out hot early and we had to match their scoring and we just didn’t. It wasn’t our game tonight, you know,” said Saskatchewan forward Austin Shanks.
The Thunderbirds have scored nine goals in a quarter three times in their history in Halifax. Coincidentally, they are all against the Rush. They did it in the first quarter of the first game of the season last year. They also scored nine in the fourth quarter in a game in 2023. They scored eight in the fourth quarter in the first meeting between these two teams in 2020.
The score of the game overshadowed Austin Shanks’s return to Halifax. Shanks was an original Thunderbird, moving to Halifax with the Rochester Knighthawks in 2019. He played four seasons in Halifax and scored 234 points, including a career-best 85 points last year.
“I was excited. I really like the Nest, the fans were great here. I wish it was a better outcome, but I was excited to be back here and play in the barn,” said Shanks.
He signed as a free agent with the Rush in the off-season and is fourth in team scoring with 49 points. Shanks has helped turn the Rush around from being a 10th-place team last year to second place this year with a 10-4 record.
“I think overall a fresh start was good, and I saw where this team was heading, and I was hoping I could jump on board and help them out,” said Shanks. “From last year to this year, I think we’ve really turned it around. We had some huge additions like Matt Hossack and some good rookies. You know it wasn’t our best game tonight obviously, but this team, we’re flowing. We’re a very good team. We’re just trying to take it game by game and we can learn from this.”
Halifax opened the scoring just over a minute into the game. Matt Robinson faked a shot up high to get the defender off balance. He passed it down to Clarke Petterson on the left side and he scored.
Forty seconds later, Robinson received a pass from up high from Petterson and ran around the defenders to get in on goal and score.
With the assist, Clarke Petterson passed his coach, Mike Accursi, in assists in Rochester Knighthawks/Halifax Thunderbirds history with 223. Petterson wasn’t aware of the milestone coming into the game.
“John (Catalano, the team’s President & CEO) said Accursi is not going to play you the next game, and I said he shouldn’t have played me in this one,” said Petterson. “No, he’s a great player and we’re lucky to have him as a coach and it’s pretty funny at the end of the day,” said Petterson.
Saskatchewan answered when Adam Jay took the ball on a breakaway in transition to score.
Jamieson scored another goal for Halifax, but Robinson’s hot start continued. He ripped the ball from up high that beat Saskatchewan’s goalie, Frank Scigliano.
Scigliano was pulled after Petterson scored on him 15 seconds after Robinson’s goal. However, backup goalie Thomas Kiazyk didn’t fare much better, stopping seven of 11 shots. Scigliano was pulled and returned twice but did play most of the game. He finished stopping 29 of 42 shots.
Petterson scored another goal and Thomas Hoggarth and Randy Staats rounded out the scoring for Halifax in the first quarter. Jerrett Smith scored a goal for Saskatchewan to make the score 9-2 after the opening frame.
“We were pretty fresh out of the gate and we were just hungry after losing a game (15-12 loss to Toronto) we should have won that we lost last week. That kind of left a bad taste in our mouth. And we really wanted to show that’s not how these next six games are going to go. They’re going to go like they did tonight,” said Petterson.
The second quarter started slowly, with neither team scoring for the first six minutes until Randy Staats fired the ball top corner to make it 10-2.
Saskatchewan answered back. Robert Church passed the ball to Clark Walter coming into the slot to score. Walter scored Saskatchewan’s only other goal of the quarter.
But the Thunderbirds wouldn’t stop scoring. Cole Kirst answered Walter’s first goal by diving over the crease to score, and Staats scored a power play goal to complete his hat trick. Staats, Petterson and Robinson all recorded hat tricks in this game. The first half ended with Halifax up 12-4.
The Thunderbirds didn’t let up in the third. Two minutes into the quarter, Petterson passed the ball up high to Cody Jamieson and he fired it for a goal.
Even though the Thunderbirds were up 13-4 at this point, they were focused on not letting up. When these teams played in December, Halifax was up 8-3 early in the fourth quarter and allowed six straight goals to lose in overtime. The game before, they were up 11-4 against Calgary in the second quarter and lost that game. They didn’t want to give the Rush any life.
“For the rest of the season with the talent and the teams that are there, no lead is really safe, so no matter how many goals are in the game, to us, it’s a tie game or we’re down by one,” said Robinson.
Everything was going right for Halifax; Trevor Smyth and Cole Kirst scored to stretch Halifax’s lead to 15-4.
Saskatchewan kept battling. Shanks passed the ball up to Robert Church for a goal. Adam Jay scored another transition breakaway goal three minutes later.
However, Jake Withers responded with a transition goal of his own. He had a strong game, winning 17/30 face-offs and picking up a game-high 16 loose balls.
The Rush opened the scoring in the fourth quarter. Brock Haley passed the ball low to Ryan Keenan on the left side and he shot it into the net 50 seconds into the quarter.
Matt Robinson answered for Halifax. He had the ball up high and fired it past Scigliano to complete his first career hat trick and a career-high seven points. This is Robinson’s first season in the league, and he has become an important contributor. His 36 points are fourth on the team.
“We have a lot of great veteran players, you can go down the list. I’ve been trying to be a sponge as much as possible and get information and learn as much as I can and learn where I can help out on the floor,” said Robinson. “Try to do as many things as possible. I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by a great group in my first year here.”
“Throughout the season, he’s been playing defence, playing ball-team, playing great offence, he’s been contributing all over the floor and it’s cool to see as a rookie,” said Petterson.
Austin Shanks responded by scoring against his old team. Brock Haley scored another goal with 35 seconds left, but the Thunderbirds took the game by a score of 17-9.
Petterson finished with a game-high nine points, Robinson had seven and Staats had six. Goaltender Warren Hill was excellent tonight after being pulled in his last game. He stopped 39/50 shots. The Thunderbirds finish their three-game homestand next week when they host the Ottawa Black Bears.
For the Rush, Ryan Keenan led them in points with one goal and four assists. Adam Jay and Clark Walter both led with two goals. This is the end of an intense stretch for the Rush. They’ve played in six straight games without a bye week, including playing three of the top five teams in their final three games – Buffalo, Georgia and Halifax. They have a bye next week.
“You know we had a six-game stretch there and our last three games we played the number one, three and five team, so we’ve had some battles. I think it’s good to rest up the body, get back in the gym, watch some film and set it and forget it and focus on Colorado in two weeks,” said Shanks.
