Nothing But Net - "Triple Double" Helps T-Birds Catch Hawks

South Island Thunderbirds, January 10, 2009

Beware of statistics, especially those involving averages.  For such matters, it is generally wise to remember the old joke about the man who has one foot in a bucket of ice and the other in a cauldron of boiling water and says that on average, the water temperature is fine.

Coming into a big “nine point” weekend against the sixth place Valley West Hawks, the South Island Thunderbirds had averaged just 3.2 goals per game in league play, scoring more than four goals just four times.  And in the 13 games in which the team had given up four goals or more, the T-Birds’ record was 1 – 12.  So according to the law of averages, it stands to reason that if the team gave up four on Saturday night, the Birds would be in big trouble right? 

That hypothesis was not one that South Island Head Coach Rob Milliken wanted to test but he could not have been happier to see it proved wrong by his suddenly sharpshooting young squad.  Frustrated last week by their inability to capitalize on a ton of scoring chances, the Thunderbirds found their scoring touch at a very opportune time, tripling their season scoring average, reaching double figures for only the second time in the team’s history and more than doubling the Hawks’ goal total in a 10 – 4 victory.

The ten goal output was spread around and came from nine different players, with Ryan Matthews the only player to find the net twice.  Most of the real damage was done on the power play, South Island clicking six times overall with the man advantage in the first two periods.

Milliken's explanation for the improvement was simple:  "We had more guys going to the net today and created more traffic around the crease in front of the Hawks' goalies."

Special teams were busy throughout the game, but especially in the first period when referee Mike McDougall whistled the two teams for a total of 12 minor penalties, five to the home team and seven to the visitors.  The first of those, which put the T-Birds short, led to the first goal of the game when a centering pass from Anil Mann appeared to deflect into the net off the skate of Max Barden in the second minute.

In a bit of “tit for tat”, South Island tied the game at 15:41 on its fourth power play on a blast from the right point by Kurtis Rumenovich through traffic that bounced off Justin Polischuk’s skate and then up and over Valley West’s starting goalie, Jay Deo.

South Island got a big lift just as the first period ended.  With just two seconds remaining and the Hawks two men short, the T-Birds got the puck to Chase Kaiser in the slot and he fired a wrist shot at Deo.  The rebound came back in front and in the scramble, Sam Rice managed to knock it through the maze of legs and through Deo just a millisecond before the buzzer sounded.  It was a lead that the T-Birds would not surrender.

South Island added four more power play goals on five opportunities in the second period.  Joel Gordon’s slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle beat Deo in the first minute to give his team a two goal lead.  Then Wes Myron knocked in a rebound off a Josh Bryan blast to make it 4 – 1 at 7:25.  Two minutes later Josh Bloomenthal converted a centering pass from Brandon Nicholson from right in front of Deo and it was 5 – 1.  Colton Mackie got one back for Valley West at 10:58 on a long slap shot that beat T-Birds’ netminder Ryan Waldhaus glove side but then Garett Kemmler restored the Birds’ four goal margin with another power play goal, this one coming on a slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle.  Ryan Matthews finished the second period scoring on a breakaway that was set up by a beautiful long pass from Chad Roorda that sent Matthews in alone from the Valley West blue line.

Valley West sent Laurent Broissoit in relief of Deo to start the third period but it wasn’t long before he too came under fire.  Matthews picked up where he left off at 4:09 on a nice three way passing play with Sam Rice and Chase Kaiser.  Rice sent Kaiser streaking in to the Valley West zone along the right boards and then after Kaiser slammed on the brakes at the hash marks, he spotted Matthews coming down the middle.  A perfect pass was followed by a sharp wrist shot that beat Broissoit stick side and it was 8 – 2.

Two Valley West goals in 49 seconds got the T-Birds refocused.  First Jamie Russell jammed a puck in from the edge of the crease at 4:43 and then Max Barden got his second goal of the game converting a quick pass in front from Stephen Campbell at 5:36.

Brandon Nicholson extended South Island’s lead to 9 – 4 at 8:06 when Broissoit came well out of the crease to play a rolling puck but mishandled it, allowing Nicholson to pull the puck out of Broissoit’s feet and then shoot it into the wide open net.  The final tally came from Wade Murphy at 11:46 off a 2 on 1 rush with Brandon Nicholson, Murphy again beating Broissoit with a wrist shot just inside the left post.

The win lifts South Island into a tie for sixth place with Valley West, both with 24 points, and also brings their head to head record to 1 – 1 – 1 in the three games to date.  The Vancouver North East Chiefs also won on Saturday night (upsetting the 3^rd place Fraser Valley Bruins) and sit just two points back in the three way battle for the sixth and final playoff spot.

Sunday morning’s rematch between the Thunderbirds and Hawks goes at 10:30 AM at the Fred Wurtele Arena on the Naden naval base and will not only put the winner ahead in that race, it will also determine the winner of the teams’ season series and position that team favorably for tie-breaking purposes.  Call it a “five point” game in that sense and the T-Birds will certainly hope that the averages work in their favor for that one.

Bird Droppings:  The shots on goal were 10-8-12=30 for Valley West and 13-20-10=43 for South Island… Ryan Waldhaus picked up his third win of the season in goal and is expected to start again on Sunday… South Island is missing four regulars from the line-up this weekend.  Goalie Brandon Glover and defenceman Matthew Sheeran are serving the last two games of their suspensions.  Forward Taylor Hache is out for a couple of weeks with an ankle sprain suffered last weekend against Fraser Valley while forward Brandon Macdougall is recovering from a spleen injury and will miss the remainder of the season… The T-Birds have three affiliate players in the line-up, including forward Connor Krupa from Juan de Fuca’s Bantam AAA team, defenceman Garrett Hayden from the Racquet Club’s Bantam AAA team and goalie Jarrod Ferguson from Juan de Fuca’s Midget AAA team… The T-Birds were 6 for 14 on the power play and 8 for 9 on the penalty kill… The T-Birds were assessed a total of 32 minutes in penalties compared to 40 for Valley West.