The Halifax Thunderbirds looked finished.
They were down 9-3 to the Albany FireWolves with six minutes left in the third quarter in front of 10,595 quiet fans at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S. The likelihood of a comeback was slim, as the Thunderbirds always have trouble scoring against Albany. They’ve only beaten the FireWolves once in six all-time meetings coming into this game.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Thunderbirds were well on their way to a fourth straight loss to start the season. They also had a dramatic week with defenceman Tyson Bell being cited for assault by the Denver police for punching a fan and swinging his stick at another fan who were taunting him as he was leaving last week’s game against the Colorado Mammoth.
HALIFAX THUNDERBIRDS PLAYER OF THE NLL (NATIONAL LACROSSE LEAGUE) ATTACKS FAN IN CROWD WHO WAS SHOUTING SOME FIGHTING WORDS. DOES THE FAN DESERVE THIS? pic.twitter.com/XH58rulQ0I
— Chaos Alerts (@ChaosAlertsOnX) December 24, 2024
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However, in a remarkable turn of events, the Thunderbirds scored six goals in four minutes to tie the game by the end of the third quarter. They scored four more goals in the fourth to win 13-10.
“Obviously, it’s been a challenging season for lots of different reasons,” said the team’s head coach, Mike Accursi. “ Realistically, looking at our record, we should have won two out of those three. There are lots of things going on and lots of distractions that we didn’t need, but we just needed a little bit of a spark. (Drew) Hutchison came in and made some big saves, and we got some big goals from (Dawson) Theede and Clarkey (Petterson). You know, there has to be a belief in the group that we have and the guys finally stuck with it and believed in each other, and that’s the result we’re going to get if we continue to do that.”
This is a refreshing turn of events for the Thunderbirds, who are usually the ones blowing leads. In their first game of the season, Halifax was up 11-4 halfway through the second quarter to the Calgary Roughnecks and lost 18-17. The following game, they were up 8-3 early in the fourth quarter and lost 9-8 in overtime.
“Having a rough start to the season, you start to second guess yourself a little bit. We did a good job of continuing to move on and adjust to the mistakes we’ve been making,” said the team’s assistant captain, Graeme Hossack.
It was a heavy time for the Thunderbirds leading up to the game with the news surrounding Tyson Bell. He is scheduled to appear in court in Colorado on Jan. 22, according to CBC News. The Thunderbirds suspended him and the league is investigating the altercation between him and the fans.
This is the second time a Thunderbird has had an incident involving the fans. During last year’s quarter-final match-up against Albany. A video shows Thunderbirds’s defender David Brock attempting to climb into the stands from the penalty box. Brock was suspended for one game and now plays for the Las Vegas Desert Dogs.
From the final minute of today’s game, Halifax’s David Brock had to be restrained from leaving the penalty box and going after a fan at MVP Arena: pic.twitter.com/Aum8UTykOC
— Mark Singelais (@MarkSingelais) April 28, 2024
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“I think it is an unfortunate situation,” said Accursi about the Tyson Bell incident. “There are a lot of facts that haven’t been brought out yet that I’m sure will, in due process, will come out. At the end of the day, we are professional athletes, and we need to act like professional athletes, we need to be better in that area. We need to control our emotions, and we will see what happens with the Tyson situation. He’s a valuable member of our team. I’ve known him since he was a kid and I love him to death, so it’s heartbreaking for me to see him going through such a tough time.”
Tyson Bell is in his fourth season with the Thunderbirds. The 30-year-old defenceman is one of the team’s most relied-upon defenders and a threat in transition. It is unclear when we will return.
Moving on to the game, the FireWolves opened the scoring two-and-a-half minutes in. Ethan Walker got wide-open in the slot and Eric Fannell passed him the ball to score. It was Fannell’s first point against his former team.
Eric Fannell was an original Thunderbird, moving to Halifax from Rochester in 2019. He missed all of last season with a knee injury. But over three seasons with the Thunderbirds, he scored 52 goals and 51 assists. The six-foot-two forward was relied upon for his size, physicality and scoring touch. He was traded to Albany for a first and fourth-round pick in 2026.
“It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t a good feeling, it’s different,” said Fannell about playing in Halifax for the first time as a visiting player. “I like Albany, I like playing for a new team, but it’s never easy to come back to your old home.”
When asked if he was expecting to be moved in the summer, Fannell said he wasn’t.
“No, I got blindsided big time.”
“He’s a very talented player,” said Hossack of his former teammate. “He’s very physical, he makes it hard on the defence, he’s hard to move, he’s big and strong. It’s always a fun battle, I know I enjoy going against him, but he can push guys around. He’s always a tough matchup, a handful, to say the least.”
Albany kept coming. Dyson Williams scored off a rebound and Alex Simmons scored from the slot to give Albany a 3-0 lead to end the first quarter.
The FireWolves didn’t let up. On the power-play, Alex Simmons and Ethan Walker scored to give Albany a 5-0 lead halfway through the second quarter.
Halifax finally broke through 22 minutes in when Cole Kirst took a harmless-looking shot from the outside, but the ball found its way into the back of the net.
Fifteen seconds later, Thomas Hoggarth dove across the crease to score a power-play goal. Clarke Petterson added another to make the game 5-3 heading into half-time.
The Thunderbirds had a big chance to get the game within one goal four minutes into the third quarter when they had a power-play. However, it was Albany that took over. A blocked shot went up the floor, and Will Johansen scooped up the loose ball, went on a break-a-way and scored. Off the ensuing face-off, Joe Nardella went in alone to score another.
Patrick Kaschalk and Ethan Walker scored to stretch their lead to 9-3 with six minutes left in the third quarter. That was the end of Warren Hill’s night and Drew Hutchison came into the game.
“I don’t blame Warren, I thought he played really well. They got a couple of quick goals, and we just needed an energy change,” said Accursi.
And that was the turning point.
Forty-five seconds after Walker’s goal, Hutchison fired a pass down the field to Colton Armstrong. Armstrong ran into the slot untouched and used his momentum to rifle a shot past Doug Jamieson.
Two minutes later, Jason Knox scored a power-play goal. Dawson Theede quickly followed up with two goals, and Clarke Petterson got another to shrink Albany’s lead to 9-8.
With a minute left in the third quarter, Thomas Hoggarth got open the slot. Petterson passed it to him and he turned around to score. In four minutes, the Thunderbirds scored six goals to tie the game, sending the 10,595 fans into a frenzy.
The Thunderbirds weren’t done. Randy Staats broke open the scoring in the fourth to give the Thunderbirds their first lead of the game. Clarke Petterson added an insurance goal to stretch their lead to 11-9.
“The score (early on) really wasn’t indicative on how we were playing. I think we just needed a shift in our energy and working for each other. Really, that’s what it came down to was energy, we had more energy than them,” said Accursi.
Albany tried to score, but Drew Hutchison shut the door. He stopped Alex Simmons on a break-a-way and made a cross-crease save on Marshall Powless to keep the Thunderbirds’ two-goal lead. He didn’t allow a goal all night on 12 shots.
“He was lights out. He made the stops we needed him to make, and it makes it easy if he’s not letting anything in,” said Hossack. “I think we gave him shots he wanted to see, and he just ate them up. Kudos to him for coming in like that, it is never easy to do that, but he was the spark we needed.”
Trevor Smyth and Ryan Terefenko added empty-net goals, and the Thunderbirds gained their first win of the season 13-9.
While the win was ecstatic for the Thunderbirds, it was a painful loss for the FireWolves. Their record drops to one win and three losses, and they have now blown two commanding leads in back-to-back games.
“I wish I could tell ya, I have no idea,” said Fannell on why this game slipped away from them. “They went on a run and scored some goals and we didn’t. Our offence wasn’t scoring, and we didn’t put the ball into the back of the net and they did, unfortunately.”
The FireWolves will host the Las Vegas Desert Dogs next Saturday. The Thunderbirds have next week off and travel to Rochester to play the Knighthawks on January 11th.
