The Halifax Thunderbirds grabbed a big lead early and never looked back on Saturday night, winning easily by a 19-6 score. The win improves The Thunderbirds’ record to 7-4, good for fourth place in the NLL. The Rush fall to 3-5 on the season, and currently sit in 11th place.
Halifax dominated the game from the outset, scoring three times in the first five-and-a-half minutes and never looking back. They built up a five-goal lead after the first quarter and extended that lead to seven goals at halftime.
It got still uglier in the third quarter as the T-Birds scored five unanswered goals, extending their lead to 16-4.
Saskatchewan finally gave their home crowd something to cheer about to open the fourth quarter as they finally had themselves a two-goal run, but Halifax responded with three more to round out the game and take the easy win.
Clarke Petterson had an eight-point night for the Thunderbirds (3 goals, 5 assists), while Zach Manns (1 G, 3 A) and Robert Church (4 A) both contributed four points to the Rush offence.
Warren Hill made 38 saves for Halifax; Frankie Scigliano was peppered with 41 shots in just 39:48, stopping 27, before being pulled for Lane Hruska, who made 12 saves against four goals allowed in the final 20 minutes of play.
Halifax hosts the Georgia Swarm on Friday. The 6-6 Swarm will be looking to close some ground on the Thunderbirds in the standings in that matchup. On Saturday, the Rush travel to Denver to face the 4-7 Colorado Mammoth. Because of games in hand, the Mammoth sit behind the Rush in the standings, even though they have more wins, so Saskatchewan will be looking to solidify their hold on 11th place, while Colorado will seek to get that win and move themselves up.
