The Halifax Thunderbirds suffered their worst loss since moving to Halifax three years ago on Sunday afternoon, falling 17-7 to the Georgia Swarm at Scotiabank Centre.
“It was an embarrassing effort,” said Thunderbirds captain Cody Jamieson. “I said it on the bench in between the quarters that it was an embarrassing effort. The effort wasn’t there tonight right from the get-go. Excuses are for cowards, I told them. (Georgia) was ready to play tonight, and we weren’t.”
“Piss poor effort to be honest,” said Thunderbirds coach Mike Accursi. “We have key guys out with injuries, but it’s the effort that you have to get. We weren’t ready to play, and it showed. They got out to a good lead, and we struggled to get back into it.”
Halifax came into the game banged up without star Jake Withers and veteran defenceman Luc Magnan. While Graeme Hossack did a good job replacing Withers at the faceoff dot, helping Halifax win just over half of the draws, they struggled defensively.
“Those are two of our big leaders in the locker room and two of our big leaders on the floor,” said Accursi. “So anytime you take those two pieces out, it definitely adds to it. I think Brayden Hill and Brett Beetow did a good job stepping in without having played a lot. I don’t think they were the issue; it was the veterans that we should be leaning on that let our team down tonight.”
While this was a bad loss for Halifax, it was a massive win for Georgia, who are chasing Halifax for the fourth spot in the standings. They’re hot right now, with six wins in their past seven games. With the win, they improve to six wins and eight losses, while Halifax barely stays ahead of them with seven wins and eight losses.
“We know where we are in the standings, and we know we don’t have any more wiggle room, so every time we come out, we have to play together and treat it like a playoff game, and I think that is what we’ve been doing so far, but we can’t stop now, we have to keep going,” said Georgia’s Shayne Jackson, who scored three goals, six assists for nine points.
Jamieson scored the first goal of the game two minutes in. He got open in the slot where Clarke Petterson found him, and Jamieson buried the ball into the back of the net.
Georgia tied the game four minutes later on the power play. Jackson found Lyle Thompson behind the net, and Thompson dunked it. This started a four-goal run for the Swarm as Brendan Bomberry scored twice, and Jeremy Thompson added another to put the Swarm up 4-1 at the end of the first quarter.
The Swarm didn’t let up in the second quarter. Two minutes in, Jackson ripped it to keep the onslaught going. He scored again three minutes later, Bomberry completed his hat trick, and Andrew Kew scored. Randy Staats scored the only goal for Halifax in the second quarter, making the game 8-2 at halftime.
“We didn’t shoot the best as the offence, and when you don’t score on offence, and they go and score, it’s a heartbreaker, and it starts right back to square one. They had the momentum, and we just couldn’t stop it,” said Jamieson.
The Thunderbirds started strong in the second half. Staats received a pick from Clarke Petterson that freed him up to shoot one past Georgia’s goalie, Brett Dobson, 30 seconds in. Staats returned the favour three minutes later, feeding Petterson in the slot, and he scored to get the game to 8-4. Bomberry added one for Georgia, but Petterson passed it to Eric Fannell for a goal to make the score 9-5.
But the Swarm were not allowing Halifax to come back. Tyson Bell was called for a dead ball foul after Fannell’s goal, and Kew scored on the man advantage. Bryan Cole dove and scored two minutes later, leading to Warren Hill being pulled for Drew Hutchison, but that didn’t help Halifax’s situation. Kew ran to the outside and shot it through Hutchison’s legs on the first shot he saw. With seconds to go in the quarter, Georgia pulled their goalie and scored to make the lead 14-5.
“(Halifax) got two goals, and they got a penalty, and we kind of needed that,” said Jackson. “ We got a big goal by Kew at the top, and that kind of eased us back into the second half.”
The Swarm wouldn’t let up. Five minutes into the fourth quarter, Kew ran around Bell, but Bell was able to knock him over in front of the net. As Kew was falling, he shot the ball with one hand on his stick to score; it was one of those games where everything was working for Georgia. Lyle Thompson and Shayne Jackson rounded out the scoring for the Swarm, making the game 17-5.
“I think right now we are playing for each other, swinging the ball and setting picks for one another,” said Jackson of the offence’s 17-goal outburst.
Andrew Kew led the Swarm in scoring with five goals and five assists. Jackson had nine points, Bomberry with seven, Cole with six and Lyle Thompson with five. The Swarm keep their fight for the playoffs going when they face the Saskatchewan Rush next week.
“We have to move on and throughout the week we have to get healthy and switch our focus to Saskatchewan. It’s cliche but we have to move on from this one and look ahead. We’ve got to keep winning, that is what we have to do,” said Jackson.
For Halifax, their race to the playoffs got tighter. They have a bye week and then also play Saskatchewan. Accursi said Luc Magnan should be back, while Withers is making progress and has been cleared to practice with no contact.
Halifax lost 17-8 to Toronto earlier this year and followed that up with a 17-7 win over Rochester. They will look to do that again.
“Each game is technically a playoff game,” said Jamieson. “We’ve put ourselves in a decent position; not the best, but a decent position where we can take care of our own stuff we’re in the playoffs. We’re still in that position now, we’re not looking for help from any other team… it’s cliche, but it’s on the next game.“
“Sometimes a good kick in the ass gets things fired back up,” added Accursi.
