The Georgia Swarm dismantled the Halifax Thunderbirds 21-9 to win game two of their NLL semi-final series on in front of a sold out crowd at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. The Swarm force a winner-take-all game three Sunday night in Halifax.
The 11-point win is the largest playoff win since the Buffalo Bandits beat the Rochester Knighthawks 20-8 in the eastern quarter-finals in 2023, and the largest a road team has won by since the Edmonton Rush beat the Minnesota Swarm 15-3 in the 2012 western finals. It was a huge response by the Swarm, who lost game one 12-7 at home.
“I don’t think anyone was really happy with our level of intensity. I think we got outworked and outplayed in game one,” said Georgia’s head coach, Ed Comeau. “Now it’s backs against the wall, all the cliches, and I think our guys played really hard, played with intensity and had some balls drop for us and we were able to hold the lead.”
In game one, Halifax dominated possession, winning 19 out of 23 faceoffs and picking up 23 more loose balls than Georgia, many in the offensive end to extend possessions. The result was Halifax outshot them 65-42. While the facoffs were still an issue, with Georgia only winning four again tonight, there’s not much they can do against Jake Withers. They were able to limit high-danger chances, and when Halifax did get some, Brett Dobson made the save. But their offence was the big difference. They were frustrated in game one, with Richie Connell being the only player to score more than one goal. Tonight, they had six multi-goal scorers.
“I thought everyone contributed tonight,” said Comeau. “We talked about moving our feet and moving the ball, our spacing was a lot better, and I think last game we got caught up in the middle and doing nothing, just clogging space and we didn’t have those lanes for cutters and shots. I think just moving the ball and moving our feet was a real focus for tonight, and I think we did a great job.”
For Halifax, this was a performance to forget.
“I think we came out a little flat,” said defenceman Johnny Pearson. “It started in the beginning, we didn’t come out hungry enough, and we played a little complacent, and that bit us in the but a little bit, and we had to make some changes going into tomorrow.”
Since February, the Thunderbirds have been playing do-or-die games to get themselves into the playoffs. Once there, they had a single-game elimination against Vancouver and badly wanted to win game one against Georgia on the road. This was their first game in two months where they hadn’t been in a game or situation where they were underdogs to win or their season would be over if they lost.
“I think we came out a little complacent. We need to have a little more of that dog or fight that made us successful and led us to that point, and ultimately, that was it,” said Pearson.
Georgia opened the scoring a minute into the game. Liam McGrath passed the ball to Jeff Hendrick coming down the right side, and he fired it past Halifax’s goalie, Warren Hill.
Cody Jamieson tied the game for Halifax three minutes later. Clarke Petterson passed him the ball up high, and Jamieson shot around Adam Wiedemann to put the ball past Georgia’s goalie, Brett Dobson.
Richie Connell for Georgia and Mike Robinson for Halifax both scored on a Halifax man advantage to keep the game tied at two.
Then the Swarm started to separate themselves. Bryan Cole swam over Clarke Petterson to get in on goal and score. Shayne Jackson and Lyle Thompson added goals to give Georgia a 5-2 lead going into the second quarter.
The Swarm’s offence kept coming. Two minutes in, Lyle Thompson darted to the front with no defencemen on him, received the ball from Cole and scored. Forty seconds later, they added another goal courtesy of Kaleb Benedict to stretch their lead to 7-2 on a five-goal run.
Halifax stopped the run five minutes into the second quarter from a goal by Casey Wilson. The rookie scored in his second straight game.
Benedict answered with a goal for Georgia, and then Halifax found some life.
Jason Knox set pick on Kason Tarbell and rolled off of it to get himself open in front of the net. Cody Jamieson passed him the ball, and Knox scored. Halifax’s captain, Cody Jamieson, scored off the ensuing faceoff.
Nolan Byrne added a goal for Georgia, but Halifax kept coming. Knox received a pass driving into the slot and dove over the crease to score. Mike Robinson added another goal nine seconds later to limit Georgia’s lead to 9-7.
However, Georgia wouldn’t allow Halifax to get much closer. Byrne, nominated for rookie of the year last week, scored two straight goals from tucking in the ball from behind the net for Georgia to finish the half up 11-7.
Stopping Halifax’s momentum was a talking point for the Swarm coming into this game. Halifax won their quarter-final against Vancouver by going on a massive 9-0 run in the second half of the game. In game one, Georgia was up 4-1, but Halifax went on a 5-0 run to take the lead, then had two other three-goal runs to eventually win the game. Tonight, Georgia never let Halifax score more than two straight goals.
“It is certainly something we talked about, I think the last little bit of the season they’ve really relied upon going on big runs, and they did in the quarter-final against Vancouver, and even last week, we were up on them early and they went on some runs,” said Comeau. “Something we talked about, but there is no magic formula, we got to get stops and hopefully score on the other end, and I think we did that tonight when they had a little bit of momentum.”
Byrne’s hot play continued in the second half. He swam over Armstrong to get in on goal and score to stretch their lead to 12-7. The same score they lost by in game one.
Halifax answered with Jason Knox’s hat-trick goal.
Even in a losing effort, Knox and Petterson continued their great play. Knox scored his third straight four-goal game, while Petterson assisted on nine out of Halifax’s 10 goals. In three playoff games, Jason Knox has 12 goals and 16 points, and Clarke Petterson has 19 assists and 23 points.
Georgia responded. Kean Moon shot the ball from far out, beating Warren Hill. Up until that point, the goaltending hadn’t been the issue for Halifax; they allowed some great chances on their goaltenders. But at this point, the goaltending started to unravel. Five minutes later, Thompson had the ball at the top of the horseshoe and beat Hill. Hill was pulled for Drew Hutchison.
Shayne Jackson and Jeff Hendrick added two more goals for Georgia, and the game went into the fourth quarter with the Swarm doubling up the Thunderbirds 16-8.
“It wasn’t anything crazy, (Georgia) just wanted it a little more than us,” said Pearson. “We didn’t step up as we should have, and it cost us.”
Georgia showed no mercy. Bryan Cole fired a shot from out high past Hutchison. Kaleb Benedict fought off Mike Robinson to get in on goal and score. Later, Jordan MacIntosh ran in on goal and jumped over the crease to score to make the game 19-8.
The former Swarm, Brendan Bomberry, stopped the seven-goal run. But Lyle Thompson and Shayne Jackson scored two more goals. Jason Knox scored the last goal of the game, and Georgia won 21-10.
Jackson led the game with three goals and 10 points. Thompson had four goals and nine points, Kaleb Benedict had three goals and nine points, Nolan Byrne scored four goals, and Bryan Cole had six points to lead the Swarm. Brett Dobson stopped 44/53 shots. He left the game at the end once it was out of reach. Devlin Shanahan stepped in and allowed one goal on two shots.
For Halifax, Clarke Petterson led the way with nine assists. Jason Knox had four goals, and Cody Jamieson had two goals and seven points. Jake Withers picked up 24 loose balls and won 30 out of 34 faceoffs. Warren Hill stopped 17 out of 29 shots and Drew Hutchison stopped 13 out of 22 shots.
Both teams head into a do-or-die game three on Sunday. Ed Comeau doesn’t think the massive win tonight will impact game three.
“No, the same question could be said to them, do they have any momentum after beating us in our own building. Yesterday is yesterday and tomorrow’s tomorrow, we’re going to focus on what we have to do to be successful. Tonight’s game means nothing at seven o’clock tomorrow night.”
