The Halifax Thunderbirds walked back to their dressing room at Rogers Arena in Vancouver last Friday night, down 7-1 at the end of the first half against the top-seeded Vancouver Warriors. Conventional wisdom would suggest they were about to play their final half of the season before being eliminated in the one-game knockout NLL quarter-finals. But the Thunderbirds weren’t deterred.
“I don’t think it was as bad as the scoreboard reflected, being down 7-1 at half,” says Thunderbirds leading scorer, Clarke Petterson. “We had maybe over 30 shots. Their goalie played well, their offence was obviously clicking on all cylinders, I don’t think our defence played badly to give up those seven goals or anything like that. So I don’t think the scoreboard really reflected how we really felt at half-time. Even being down that much, we were like ‘listen, we’re not playing bad right now, it’s not like we’re being blown out, we just need to stick with what we’re doing’.”
Halifax’s captain Cody Jamieson scored eight minutes into the third quarter, and the Thunderbirds didn’t look back. They scored nine straight goals against the league’s second-best defensive team to win 10-7.
“Some bounces went our way, but we stuck with it, we believed in each other, and I think that is something that we’ve done the whole season and something we’re going to continue to do going into this series against Georgia,” says Petterson.
Believing in each other is something the Thunderbirds have done all season, because their path to making the NLL semi-finals against the Georgia Swarm has been nothing but easy. On Feb. 21, the Thunderbirds found themselves with a record of three wins and seven losses (3-7), and dropped seven of their last eight games—an unusual position for them to be in. Since moving to Halifax from Rochester in 2019, they have been one of the league’s best regular-season teams.
A major reason for their regression was their offence dropping from second best in the league last year with 13 goals per game, to near the bottom with nine goals per game by Feb. 21. Much of the drop in scoring had to do with the lack of secondary scoring, but the Thunderbirds lost some key players too. Last season, Randy Staats was first in the team in scoring, Thomas Hoggarth was third and Dawson Theede was tied for fourth. This year, Hoggarth suffered an injury in the first game of the season and hasn’t played since. Theede was traded to Oshawa in January and Staats has been hurt since Feb. 28 during a win against the Calgary Roughnecks.
But the belief never wavered, and, ironically, it was their 14-10 win in Calgary that turned their season around. Their offence improved; depth scorers like Mike Robinson, Jason Knox and Stephen Keogh started to find their groove, and Halifax averaged 12 goals per game in their last eight matches. Their record since the Calgary game was 3-3, setting up a crucial final game of the season against the Ottawa Black Bears, where the winner went to the playoffs, and Halifax won 12-6.
“We just really believe in each other, and you hear it echoed all the time in answering questions or whatnot,” says Petterson. “I think it starts with (Cody Jamieson) up top, we give him a lot of credit, but we can’t give him enough credit for how good of a leader he is. His presence on the floor, off the floor, in the huddle, running plays, anything like that. Just his calming presence, knowing that he trusts us and we trust him to take us to where we need to go.”
The Thunderbirds find themselves back in the NLL semi-finals for the second year in a row. They faced the Saskatchewan Rush last year and were swept in the best-of-three series. Losing the first game 16-7 at home and dropping game two 10-9 in overtime in Saskatoon.
“I think maybe last year we were like, oh, it’s two-out-of-three, so we have some breathing room…but now it’s just killer mentality,” says Petterson. “We need to keep our heads on straight the way we have been since we were 3-7, which is it’s due or die for us every week. I know we lost some games since then, obviously, but we played every game to the best of our ability. We lost some one-goal games to top teams, we’ve been in every single game, we’ve won some hard games, we’ve won some low-scoring ones and high-scoring wins. So I think the biggest thing is not treating it like it’s two out of three, treating it like it’s one out of one. We have to go in there and we have to win this game. And that’s the way we’ve treated the second half of the season, and that’s going to lead to success for us.”
They have a tough semi-final opponent in the Georgia Swarm. Georgia defeated the Buffalo Bandits 17-10 in the quarter-finals, ending Buffalo’s three-year reign as champions. Lyle Thompson scored 10 points in that game while Nolan Byrne, Richie Connell and Shayne Jackson scored hat tricks. But their offence isn’t their best asset. They’ve led the league with 156 goals against, which was 14 fewer goals allowed than the second-best Warriors. Brett Dobson has had an MVP level season in net, stopping 85 per cent of the shots he’s faced and allowing 7.86 goals per game, which is the best among starting goaltenders.
“They have a strong defence and a really good system that they play,” says Petterson. “It’s a lot of preparation for their system, it is a little bit different than what a lot of teams play. They play high pressure, double-teaming the ball and trying to cause turnovers. It starts with a good practice, we actually have practice tonight (Tuesday). Getting some strategies and offensive keys we have to focus on, preparing for those through film and practicing those on the floor is going to be huge. At the end of the day, you have to trust yourself, trust your shot, trust your best offensive play, and that you’re going to come out on top.”
However, the Thunderbirds are strong in net as well. Their starting goalie, Warren Hill, shut out Vancouver in the second half of the last game. He only allowed six goals in the win-or-go-home game against Ottawa, and he stopped 51 shots against Vancouver in the second last game of the year.
“He’s won us some games that we maybe didn’t deserve to win,” says Petterson about Hill. “He’s been our rock, and he starts everything off. When he’s playing really well and stopping those outside shots, then our defence can tighten it up a little bit and give up some less inside shots. Every once in a while he comes up with a huge transition save or an inside finish save that will bail us out of a sure goal. So when he gets rolling, the defence gets rolling and they shut down the opposing offence, that gives us a little bit of breathing room up front. Some more time to get our stuff together and get the ball in the back of the net. When the defence is feeling confident, they can push the ball in transition as well, which has been a key for us in the past couple of games…It really starts with a solid foundation with Warren, and everyone gains a little momentum every shift out from him.”
The Georgia Swarm have been a difficult opponent for the Thunderbirds. They’ve beaten them four straight times dating back to the 2024 season. Georgia has defeated Halifax twice this year, including a wacky game on March 20 where Halifax came back from a 10-1 deficit but lost 17-16. However, just like in the dressing room in Vancouver, the Thunderbirds are confident in themselves.
“Especially in the playoffs, everything is out the window,” says Petterson. “We’re 8-10 going up against the first-place Vancouver Warriors, who were 13-5, and it all goes out the window, you have to bring your best that night. That’s not a shot at Vancouver at all. But for us, the past results aren’t really what we’re thinking about. We’re thinking about the very best first shift and first five minutes on Saturday in Georgia and then we’ll take it from there.”
