The Saskatchewan Rush are headed to the NLL Finals after sweeping their best-of-three series against the Halifax Thunderbirds. But the outcome was not a sure thing—a flurry of goals in the final 3:23 of the second game nearly resulted in Halifax forcing a Game Three. Instead, the Rush tied the game in the dying seconds, and won 10-9 in overtime.
The game looked like it might be a blowout in the early going as the Rush scored the first three goals of the game. But the Thunderbirds answered late in the first quarter, picking up three of the last four goals in the quarter to draw to within one.
The second quarter was a tight battle, with both goaltenders making key saves along the way. Halifax finally broke the deadlock at the 8:22 mark to tie things up. Saskatchewan regained the lead less than two minutes later and took that one goal advantage to the locker room for half time.
In the third quarter, Clarke Petterson tied the game again with a power play marker, quickly followed by Mike Messenger scoring for the Rush to take their lead back again. Petterson scored his second goal of the night with just four seconds remaining in the quarter to once again tie the score at 6-6.
And that’s how the score stood until Dawson Theede gave the Thunderbirds their first lead of the night at 3:23. Former Thunderbird Austin Shanks tied the game yet again just 26 seconds later and the flurry of late goals was on.
Thomas Hoggarth scored 24 sconds after Shanks to give Halifax another lead and he added another 57 seconds after that, putting the Thunderbirds up by two with only a minute-and-a-half left on the clock. Saskatchewan got back to within one goal 52 seconds later on a goal from Zach Manns and then Matt Hossack converted a critical turnover into the game-tying goal with just six seconds left, forcing overtime.
In the extra frame, Halifax’s Mike Robinson took a boarding major just a minute-and-a-half in, setting the stage for Shanks to snipe the game winner 10 seconds later, sending the Rush to the Finals and the Thunderbirds home.
Robert Church scored twice and added three assists to lead the Rush while Theede had a six point night for the Thunderbirds on two goals and four assists.
Both goalies had outstanding nights. Saskatchewan’s Frankie Scigliano and Halifax’s Warren Hill both made 45 saves in the game.
The Rush will now travel to Buffalo to face the Bandits on Friday to kick off the best-of-three Finals. The last time these two teams faced each other for the championship, in 2016, the Rush emerged victorious. But the Bandits have won the last two championships and they defeated the Rush earlier this year in their only regular season matchup.
