The Halifax Thunderbirds narrowly beat the Philadelphia Wings 10-8 on Sunday afternoon at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ont.
Six games into their season, the Thunderbirds now have five wins and one loss. An excellent record for a team who had an unscheduled month-long break because of COVID-19 and had to move two home games to Hamilton, Ont. because restrictions in Nova Scotia prevented them from playing there.
“I think it relies heavily on our defence,” says Accursi about the team’s success this season. “I think our defence has done an outstanding job holding very good offensive teams to 10 or fewer goals. I think when we do that we should win those games.
“Our offence has found ways to win, which is nice because I think offensively we haven’t put that total game together where both sides are contributing and having success. So I think at the end of the day our defence is really good and our offence is finding ways. So offence wins games and defence wins championships, and our defence is a championship level defence right now.”
Halifax’s defence has limited teams to 9.50 goals per game. That is the second-lowest total in the league behind the San Diego Seals with 8.71.
Philadelphia opened the scoring three minutes in. Corey Small passed the ball to Ben McIntosh at the top of the arch and he fired it past Halifax’s goalie Warren Hill. Kevin Crowley scored five minutes later to make it 2-0.
Halifax scored three unanswered goals to end the quarter in their favour at 3-2 thanks to Cody Jamieson and Stephan Leblanc. Jamieson opened the scoring for Halifax. Leblanc made an excellent pick for him to get open and run in on goal to score. Jamieson returned the favour five minutes later. He and Eric Fannell set picks for Leblanc to get loose and score. Jamieson finished off the run at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started slow, but Corey Small opened the scoring 10 minutes in. He had the ball wide on the right side and shot low to beat Hill.
Eight seconds later, Halifax defender Ryan Terefenko collected a loose ball and burst past Isaiah Davis-Allen to score a breakaway goal. That is the second goal in two games for the rookie defender.
Philadelphia’s Brandon Hickey tied the game at 4-4 going into the second half.
It was a low-scoring game up until the fourth quarter. Zach Higgins had 21 saves for Philadelphia at that point and finished the game with 44. Warren Hill stopped 19 shots at the half and finished with 36.
“We kept (Philadelphia) to the outside; Warren Hill is going to stop the majority of those shots from the outside. I thought that is where we did a really good job against them,” says Accursi.
“All credit to Zach Higgins, I think he played an amazing game,” Accursi added. “I think the score could have been a lot different if he didn’t play so well.”
Kevin Crowley started the scoring in the third quarter. Corey Small passed him the ball in the slot for the goal.
Jamieson tied the game four minutes later, he shot the ball from the right side and it went into the top corner. Kyle Jackson finished the scoring in the quarter to give Halifax a 6-5 lead. Jackson scored again two minutes into the fourth quarter when Jamieson passed it to him in front and Jackson dove over the crease to score and give Halifax a 7-5 lead.
Jackson was scratched two games ago because of his lack of production. He now has four goals in his last two games, and Accursi likes how he responded.
“I thought KJ responded very well to it; he was very professional about it,” says Accursi. “The best way to respond to something like that is to dig deep inside and put that extra effort out and hope success is going to follow and that’s what he’s done… I think for him, it was a little bit of a reset button, and KJ is back to being the KJ we know and love.”
The Wings came storming back. Brett Hickey scored from the top of the arch on the power play eight minutes into the fourth quarter. A minute and a half later, Ben McIntosh scored another.
McIntosh completed the hat trick. He drove to the slot and shot the ball over a defender to give the Wings an 8-7 lead with 2:13 left.
The Thunderbirds didn’t quit. They faced a similar situation against the Toronto Rock a month ago and came back to win that game in overtime at FirstOntario Centre.
The tying goal came from an unlikely hero. With a minute and a half left in the game, defender Colton Armstrong took the ball down the floor in transition. Armstrong passed it to fellow defender Brad Gillies on his left side and he scored.
“We got a good goal from Gillies in transition that tied the game up, and I think that sparked our team a little bit,” says Accursi.
With 23 seconds left, Eric Fannell passed it to Stephan Leblanc in front of the net. Leblanc dove over the crease and scored the game-winning goal.
Tyson Bell added an empty-net goal, and Halifax won 10-8.
This is one of two ‘home’ games the Thunderbirds have played in Hamilton because COVID-19 restrictions prevented the games from being played in Halifax. Restrictions have eased in the province allowing the team to play in Halifax on Saturday against the Georgia Storm with a maximum of 3,000 fans. It will be the first time the team has played in their home arena since Dec. 10, the second week of the season.
“We made the best out of a worst-case scenario by playing out of Hamilton and getting two wins there, which is really good,” says Accursi. “But now we get to go back home and in front of our fans where we’re comfortable and where I think we have an advantage over other teams. It’s exciting. I know the guys are excited to get back there, and hopefully, we never get shut out again from Halifax and continue to build what we started.”
