The Halifax Thunderbirds win their second straight game, defeating the Las Vegas Desert Dogs 13-11 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S. The Thunderbirds were down 5-1 eight minutes into the second quarter, but outscored Las Vegas 12-6 the rest of the way to win the game.
“I think it was a lot of perseverance. We were down 5-1 pretty early, but just talking after the game, we were like ‘oh man, I forgot we were down 5-1,’ so we kinda had a short memory, took it one shift at a time and stuck to our principles,” said Clarke Petterson, who scored a hat trick and seven points tonight.
This is the second time the Thunderbirds have won two games in a row after winning their first two games of the season. It has been a challenging stretch since then, with the team losing seven out of their next eight games. But they defeated the Calgary Roughnecks 14-10 last week and won tonight, improving their record to 5-7 and keeping their season alive. It was a pivotal win two days before the trade deadline. It is yet to be seen what the Thunderbirds will do before the deadline, but if they dropped to 4-8, they would likely been in sell mode. Now management will have to ponder whether to keep the group intact to take a run at the playoffs.
“There’s a lot of belief in our locker room. Nobody wants to lose and get some guys traded. It’s a win-or-go-home mentality, “ said Stephen Keogh, who also scored a hat trick tonight. “I’ve only been here a couple of weeks. I agreed to come to this team because I believe we have a chance to make a long playoff push. I don’t want to go home. I’m 39, this is my last shot at it. So I just want to do everything I can to make the team and battle with my brothers, just gotta keep going and play a full 60 minutes and take it one game at a time.”
Petterson said the team has been in playoff mode since their 9-8 loss to San Diego on Feb. 21.
“I think since losing to San Diego, there has been urgency for every game. That was one that we had, and we should have won, and we kind of pissed it away. From then on, it’s playoffs. Playoffs started for us basically in March. Every game from the past two is a playoff game. It’s urgent every night, and our team knows that and that is the message. Every week is a playoff game from now on. We take out the slack in the rope that you start the season with. We got to get to eight or nine wins, probably nine this year, we only have six games left, so we have to treat every game like a playoff game,” said Petterson.
Las Vegas opened the scoring with a power play goal. Mitch Jones had the ball at the top of the horseshoe and fired it past Halifax’s goalie, Warren Hill.
That was the only goal for most of the quarter until the Thunderbirds scored with 37 seconds left. Tyson Bell picked up a loose ball in the defensive zone and threw it up the floor to Ryan Terefenko, who took off on a break away. Terefenko fired it past Las Vegas’s goalie, Landon Kells.
Las Vegas came out hot in the second quarter. Adam Poitras blew by Terefenko to get in on goal and jump over the crease for the goal. Forty seconds later, Kevin Crowley passed the ball to Jones, going towards the crease, to score. Shortly after, Jackson Webster deked around Nonkon Thompson to score through traffic. Las Vegas scored three goals in 52 seconds to break open the game. Connor Kirst added another to stretch their lead to 5-1 eight minutes into the quarter.
Halifax’s captain, Cody Jamieson, stopped the run with a goal. However, Las Vegas responded with a power play goal from Jonathan Donville.
But the Thunderbirds wouldn’t surrender. Austin Blumbergs answered for Halifax, taking a shot from far out that fooled Kells. Three minutes later, Petterson scored from the left-side. With two seconds left in the quarter, Stephen Keogh picked up a rebound in the slot and scored to cut Las Vegas’s lead to 6-5.
“I thought we came out pretty slow in the first half. Our defence kept them to six goals in the first half. We came in and (the offence) just talked, we had to move our feet and move the ball, and we started doing the little things right, and the ball started dropping for us,” said Keogh.
Halifax opened the scoring in the third quarter. Jake Withers passed the ball to Will MacLeod coming off the bench in transition, and he fired it past Kells to tie the game at six. Las Vegas answered right away. Adam Poitras received the ball in transition and drove to the net to score.
Halifax answered with a transition goal from Ethan O’Connor. The Thunderbirds took the lead a minute later. Petterson used a pick by Brendan Bomberry to weave his way through traffic and score. The quarter ended with Halifax up 8-7.
Halifax’s struggling offence is the main reason why they’re outside the playoff picture. A few weeks ago, they were near the bottom of the league in goals. However, things have turned around recently. They scored 14 goals against Calgary last week and 13 tonight against Las Vegas. Granted, both teams are lower in the standings than Halifax, but it is a turnaround for the offence. They had a big task tonight with Randy Staats, their second-leading scorer, injured. He’s considered week-to-week. But the team stepped up with nine different players scoring.
“We’re finding our identity on offence a little bit, which is creating separation for other guys on the floor. When you do that, when you work to get other guys open, with setting proper picks, cutting through the middle, not to get yourself open but to draw two guys, that creates lanes. Before we were kind of a really perimeter team…now we’re cutting through the middle, creating switches, up-picking off the wall, doing lots of stuff without the ball that is creating space for guys that do have the ball,” said Petterson.
Las Vegas opened the scoring in the fourth quarter. Kyle Killen had lots of space on the left side and fired a shot past Warren Hill for a goal.
Petterson answered for Halifax. He flew past Josh Jackson to get in alone on goal to score his hat-trick goal. Two minutes later, Nonkon Thompson scored to stretch Halifax’s lead to 10-8.
Las Vegas and Halifax traded goals courtesy of Chris Cloutier and Jason Knox.
Then Stephen Keogh went to work. He received a pass as he ran into the slot and scored, making the game 12-9. Two minutes later, he picked up the ball by the boards and managed to run into the slot and complete his hat trick with a shorthanded goal.
Keogh was signed by the Thunderbirds on Jan. 21 to help the struggling offence. This is his second stint with the team. He was a member of the original Thunderbirds team that came over from Rochester and played two seasons in Halifax. The 13-year veteran took the year off in 2024-25 but has been solid for the Thunderbirds this year, scoring nine points in four games, including four points tonight.
“I’m having fun,” said Keogh. “I have some chemistry with the guys with playing here before, with (Jamieson), Clarke, and played with Randy and (Bomberry) before. I just pride myself on working hard, and good things will come. The shots were falling for me tonight. We’re just lucky on offence that it can be any guy scoring three or four goals. It’s hard for the defence to not just focus on one person and the ball was falling for me tonight. And I don’t want to go home. I came here for a reason, and that’s to continue to play lacrosse and have fun.”
“He’s an awesome, calming presence on our offence, Being very vocal, being a leader, and also just doing the little things that go unnoticed, battling for loose balls, resets, scoring a shorthanded goal late in the game. Just bringing a lot of energy to our offence and he’s been unreal, ” said Petterson.
Chris Cloutier and Kyle Killen added two late goals for Las Vegas, but they couldn’t complete the come back and Halifax won 13-11.
Clarke Petterson led the way offensively for the Thunderbirds with three goals and seven points. Keogh scored three goals and four points, Jason Knox scored a goal and five points, and Cody Jamieson scored a goal and four points. Jake Withers was fantastic in this game, too. Winning 26/28 face-offs, picking up 23 loose balls and adding an assist. Warren Hill stopped 42/53 shots.
The Las Vegas Desert Dogs did a good job of spreading their offence tonight. Mitch Jones, Chris Cloutier and Kyle Killen all scored two goals and two assists. Jonathan Donville scored a goal and five points, and Adam Poitras had a goal and three points. Kyle Kells stopped 43/53 shots.
The Thunderbirds move on to host the Toronto Rock on Friday night, while Las Vegas hosts the Rochester Knighthawks on Sunday.
