The Halifax Thunderbirds defeated the Panther City Lacrosse Club 13-9 at home in front of their largest crowd ever, with 10,193 spectators in the Scotiabank Centre.
This is Halifax’s last home game until their final game of the season on April 20. They will head on a three-game road trip to cement themselves in the standings. Coming into this game, Halifax was fifth in the league with a record of 7-6. They’re battling to get into the top four and host a home playoff game in Halifax for the first time.
“We’re in playoff mode, we’re in the thick of it and we understand where we are in the standings,” said Halifax’s captain, Cody Jamieson, who scored a goal and an assist tonight. “We were treating it like a playoff game, like a playoff atmosphere. The crowd definitely showed up tonight, our best crowd ever, so we wanted to come out and perform like it was a playoff game. We really want to get a home game for these fans; they haven’t had one since we’ve been here.”
For Halifax’s assistant captain, Graeme Hossack, this game had special meaning. It was the first time he’d played against his brother Matt Hossack in four years. The whole family made the trip, including Graeme’s seven-month-old child, who made their first visit to the Nest.
“It’s been kind of nice being able to watch (Matt) grow with that franchise after being picked up in the expansion draft and getting his game to where it is today,” said Graeme Hossack, who had an assist, two caused turnovers and six loose balls. “At the same time, I still don’t want him to win when he’s playing us.”
The Hossacks weren’t the only opposing brothers in this game. Panther City defender Dylan Hutchison and Thunderbirds goalie Drew Hutchison were also on opposite sides. However, Drew was the backup goalie for this game, so they didn’t play against each other.
Jamieson opened the scoring two minutes into the game. He sniped a power play goal from the high slot.
However, Panther City responded 45 seconds later. Jonathan Donville received the ball high in the offensive zone on a broken-up breakout attempt by Halifax. Donville fired the ball into the net to tie the game.
The Thunderbirds regained the lead 30 seconds later. Jamieson made a cross-zone pass to Austin Shanks at the left side of the net to score.
Then Halifax came out swinging.
Dawson Theede scored a ridiculous goal. He shot the ball from the slot, but it was blocked. He grabbed the rebound, but with a defender on his shooting side, he shot from behind his back to put the ball in the top corner of the net.
A minute later, Ryan Terefenko scored a break away goal to extend the lead. Then, Aaron Woods and Dawson Theede scored goals within 25 seconds to give Halifax a 6-1 lead heading into the second quarter.
But the Thunderbirds weren’t going to let up. Austin Shanks set a pick for Aaron Woods and then spun into the slot, where he received a pass from Woods and scored. Shanks added another goal to make the score 8-1.
Ryan Benesch and Clarke Petterson rounded out the scoring in the quarter for Halifax. Jason Knox added a goal for Panther City. However, Halifax was up 10-2 and outshooting Panther City 38-15 at halftime.
“I think we knew we needed to win this game. There’s obviously a lot on the line and we came out firing,” said Hossack. “We came off a kind of sloppy weekend in San Diego (12-8 loss), so the coaches were on us a little bit, and everyone stepped up, and we need to bring that every weekend.”
Panther City was not going to quit. They needed a break and got it three minutes into the third quarter. Shanks hit the post and the ball went out to Tony Malcolm, who took off on a 2-on-1 break. He shot it himself to open the scoring in the second half.
That opened the floodgates for Panther City. Two minutes later, Malcolm passed it to Jonathan Donville coming off the bench and he scored. Jason Knox added another goal two minutes later.
Ryan Sheridan kept the goals coming. He ran from the left side in on goal and managed to tuck the ball into an open spot between Hill and the post. Donville added another goal to finish the quarter, outscoring Halifax 5-0 and getting themselves back into the game, with the score 10-7.
“We’ve been struggling in the third quarter lately, coming out and continuing on, it is tough to pinpoint,” said Jamieson. “We play a little bit differently when we have a big lead like that, a little bit more cautious than we would be when the game is on the line. As you saw in the fourth quarter, we picked it back up when it started getting close, so we got to figure it out but we still got time.”
Luckily for Halifax, they scored the first goal of the fourth quarter. Austin Shanks ran in on goal and passed it back to Clarke Petterson, who scored. Then Jake Withers won the draw and took the ball down the floor to score. Stretching Halifax’s lead to 12-7
“We have been leaning on Clarke a lot this year,” said Jamieson of Petterson, who is seventh in league scoring with 79 points coming into this game. “He has really stepped up, and we always knew it in this locker room but he is showing everyone else that he is an elite player in this league. And that is Jake doing what Jake does. He is the best at (face offs) by far and we’re fortunate to have him on our side. We expect things like that from him, big plays at big-time moments, we expect him to get the ball and that lifts us up even more.”
Petterson added another to pad Halifax’s lead. Phil Caputo added two more goals for Panther City but they fell 13-9.
Clarke Petterson led Halifax with a hat trick and six points. Austin Shanks also had a hat trick and five points. Aaron Woods and Ryan Benesch each scored a goal and three assists. Dawson Theede had two goals, and Ryan Terefenko had three points. Warren Hill stopped 34/43 shots.
For Panther City, Jonathan Donville led the way with three goals and four points, and Tony and Will Malcolm scored four points. Jason Knox had two goals and three points. Nick Damude started the game stopping 28/38 shots. He was replaced in the second half by Cam MacLeod, who stopped 20/23 shots.
Panther City heads back home to Fort Worth to play the Buffalo Bandits on Friday. Halifax starts the first game of its three-game road trip against the Toronto Rock on Saturday. It will also travel to Rochester and Vancouver before heading back home on April 20.
