The Halifax Thunderbirds defeat the Saskatchewan Rush 17-12 on Friday night to win their fourth straight home opener.
“The family atmosphere we have in the locker room is something we miss, and when we get back in the locker room, it’s a breath of fresh air and a boost of energy,” said Thunderbirds forward Clarke Petterson, who led the game in scoring with five goals and three assists. “Playing in front of this community and these fans is a two-fold effect; it just doubles it up and makes us play, run and push harder.”
The best player in the game was Halifax’s Jake Withers. He grabbed 32 loose balls, which tied the single-game league record. He was also a beast in the face-off dot winning 31/33 face-offs. On three of those draws, he took the ball himself and went down to score his first career hat trick.
“I want to get more (goals), to be honest with you,” said Withers. “When you’re having a good game, you try to maximize it as much as possible. But I’m okay with three and a win. Even if I had zero and we won, that’s all I really care about. But it’s nice to chip in on the offensive side.”
The Thunderbirds came out flying, scoring four goals in two minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead five minutes into the game. Ryan Benesch, who said this will be the final season of his 19-year career, broke open the scoring with two goals. Clarke Petterson and Dawson Theede rounded out the scoring for Halifax.
Zach Manns, who came to the Rush from the Toronto Rock in the offseason, answered for Saskatchewan. On the power play, he fired a shot past Halifax goalie Warren Hill.
But the Thunderbirds wouldn’t stop their onslaught. Petterson scored two goals to complete the first-quarter hat trick. Jake Withers added two and Bo BowHunter scored another. The Thunderbirds scored nine goals in the first quarter, tied with their nine-goal fourth-quarter when these two teams met last year as the most goals they’ve scored as the Halifax Thunderbirds since moving from Rochester. The franchise record is 10, set by Rochester Knighthawks.
“Our shots were just falling; I don’t think we were doing anything amazing, we weren’t sniping corners, but we were playing our offence the way we wanted to play it. We were touching both sides with the ball. We were playing unselfish and our shots were falling,” said Petterson.
But Saskatchewan didn’t roll over. Church scored two power-play goals and Patrick Dodds scored another to keep them in it. One of Church’s goals was a good bounce. He couldn’t catch a pass in time but the ball hit off his stick, bounced and found its way into the back of the net. The first quarter ended with Halifax up 9-4.
The pace slowed down to start the second quarter. Austin Shanks opened the scoring for Halifax seven and a half minutes in. Jerrett Smith scored for Saskatchewan two minutes later.
Off the ensuing face-off, Withers took the ball himself and ran right down the middle of the floor to complete the hat trick. All of his goals were scored right off faceoffs to answer Saskatchewan’s goals.
“I think in years past, I’ve had those opportunities and they just weren’t dropping. My teammates did a pretty good job of giving me space and allowing me to make those plays, and tonight they dropped,” said Withers.
With just five minutes left in the quarter, Trevor Smyth levelled Church with a hit that knocked Church’s helmet off. Church was stunned and it took him a few seconds to compose himself, but he stayed in the game. Smyth got a five-minute major, which is ironic because he only had one minor penalty last year. With Saskatchewan down by six, the major penalty was an excellent opportunity to get them back into the game. However, Halifax killed the whole penalty.
“We got a group of us back there that have been playing with each other for a few years now, so we’re very familiar with one another, giving shots that Warren (Hill) wants,” said Withers. “Obviously, it was a grind at the pivotal part of the game, but we did our job, Warren did his and the offence did a good job getting some resets to alleviate any stress on ourselves when it was deep in that five-minute penalty.”
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring in the third quarter. Dawson Theede used his six-foot-four wingspan to hold off a defender and make a one-handed pass to Benesch in the slot and he completed the hat trick. However, Isaac Ngyou answered for Saskatchewan.
Withers’ dominance continued. He won the ensuing faceoff and took off down the floor. This time, Saskatchewan’s defence clogged the middle of the floor, preventing Withers from getting through, but that left the flanks open. Withers passed it to Theede on his right and he scored to make the score 14-6.
Ngyou scored again, but like the Thunderbirds had done all game, they responded immediately. Petterson and Jamieson scored in rapid succession. Then rookie Cole Kirst scored his first NLL goal, spinning and shooting from the outside. All three goals occurred within 40 seconds to extend the lead to 17-7.
“It was amazing to hug everyone on the entire offence and the coach to shake my hand when I came to the bench, and be a part of that moment was so special,” said Kirst on his first goal.
However, Saskatchewan would not give up even though the game was out of reach. Robert Church was completely wide open in front and deked Hill out to score his hat trick goal. Ryan Keenan received a pass in the slot and turned around to score. Zach Manns scored twice in a transition to complete his hat trick.
Ryan Barnable scored the last and most ridiculous goal of the night. He took off in transition with Petterson chasing after him. Petterson wrapped his arms around Barnable. But as he was doing so, Barnable twisted his body and fire a no-look backwards shot on goal while falling, which surprised Hill and he scored.
“I saw that (Barnable) had it, and I was trying to chase him down, and I knew I had my hands full,” said Petterson. I caught him and was draped all over him, but he made a highlight-reel play. There’s not much you can say, it’s an unreal goal.”
Saskatchewan scored five goals within the last five minutes of play to soften the score, falling 17-12 to the Thunderbirds. Halifax was not happy with how the game ended.
“It’s very easy with anything in life, when things are going good, you get up on yourself and get a little confident. It’s easy to pull motivation when you’re behind, which we’ve been many times in the Nest (Scotiabank Centre) here. But when you’re up, it shows the true colours of a team. We have to find that motivation in a game like that. It’s something we are going to address for sure; it’s unacceptable that we allowed that many in the fourth,” said Withers.
Halifax outshot Saskatchewan 66-46. Petterson and Withers led the way for Halifax, but other standouts include Benesch with a hat trick and five points, Austin Shanks with a goal and six assists and Dawson Theede with two goals and five assists. For Saskatchewan, Zach Manns had three goals and three assists, and Robert Church had three goals and two assists.
Frank Scigliano started the game for Saskatchewan in goal but he was pulled after allowing nine goals on 36 shots and was replaced by Laine Hruska but he didn’t fare much better, allowing eight goals on 30 shots. Warren Hill allowed 12 goals on 46 shots.
Halifax has next week off and their next game is on Dec. 16 in New York. Saskatchewan plays its home opener next Saturday against the Rochester Knighthawks.
