Magic Number Down to Two After Birds Get Jump on Blazers

South Island Thunderbirds, February 14, 2009

It started with a great pre-game “jump around”, which is the high intensity, joyous and often comical warm-up routine that is always accompanied by a driving techno beat and used by the South Island Thunderbirds players to get themselves ready to play.  The combination of loud music, physical antics and celebratory cheering throughout the roughly 15 minute performance has drawn considerable curiosity moving from rink to rink this season and Saturday night’s version in the corridor under the stands at the Interior Savings Centre in Kamloops had plenty of spectators, including many of the Thompson Blazers’ players.

With the sixth and final playoff spot still up for grabs and the Thunderbirds having control of their own destiny heading into the final four games of the regular season, there was no doubt that the visitors were ready to play.  They came out with a very purposeful style of play on Saturday night, scoring in the first minute of play and never really letting up.  Nearly tripling their season scoring average, the T-Birds scored three times in each period, outshooting the Blazers by a one-sided total of 56 – 16 along the way, and winning by a final margin of 9 – 1.

The win lifts South Island’s record back to .500 overall with 15 wins, 15 losses and 7 ties for a total of 37 points.  The Valley West Hawks, who started the weekend six points back but have two games in hand, kept pace with a huge 2 – 1 upset of the second place Greater Vancouver Canadians.  The Vancouver Chiefs also started the weekend tied with the Hawks for 7^th place, but fell eight points back of the Thunderbirds after losing to the Okanagan Rockets by a score of 3 – 0.

That combination of events reduced the T-Birds’ magic number to clinch a playoff spot to two, meaning any combination of wins by South Island and losses by the Hawks and Chiefs totaling two will secure a playoff spot for South Island for the first time in the team’s four year history in the BC Major Midget League.

Saturday night’s game in Kamloops saw the Thunderbirds exert unrelenting pressure on Thompson for pretty much the full 60 minutes.  After surrendering that first minute goal, nothing seemed to go right for the Blazers who got increasingly frustrated as the game went along.  That frustration led to an increasing number of penalties as the score mounted, with a total of 19 minor penalties being levied on the Blazers including 13 in the third period alone.

Sam Rice got the Birds flying just 24 seconds after the opening face-off, taking a pass from Wes Myron and firing a low shot that got past Blazer goalie Will Frolek from about 15 feet as Rice flew past the right face-off dot.

Five minutes later, just after South Island went on its first power play, T-Bird goalie Brandon Glover was called upon to make a couple of outstanding saves after a turnover right in front of the crease allowed a Blazer penalty killer two glorious attempts to tie the game.  Glover made another outstanding save off a deflection in the eighth minute of play, reacting quickly to get his right leg pad out just in time to kick the shot away.

The Birds scored twice in the space of 32 seconds to give themselves some early breathing room just past the mid-point of the opening frame.  First, Joel Gordon and Mark Walton did some fine work along the end boards and fed Josh Bloomenthal in front of the net for a one-timer that beat Frolek and made it 2 – 0.  Then Garett Kemmler banked a long pass up to send Ryan Matthews in on a breakaway, which Matthews converted to make it 3 – 0.

South Island forward Brandon Nicholson had a big game and he got the T-Birds started again in the second period with his sixth goal of the season.  This one came on the power play after the puck was worked around the box to Brandon in the left face-off circle, and his hard wrist shot trickled through Frolek at 4:19.  Thompson answered quickly with its only goal of the game as just 30 seconds later, Spencer Donaldson carried the puck into the South Island zone on a 2 on 1 and beat Glover with a low wrist shot from about 18 feet.

The score remained 4 – 1 until the 15^th minute when South Island put the game away with two more fast goals at even strength.  Joel Gordon picked up a rebound and reached past Frolek to tuck the puck in on the backhand at 14:10 and then Nicholson picked up his second goal at 14:48, firing another low wrist shot from the left face-off circle.

The third period saw a dispirited Blazer team lose its focus and start a parade to the penalty box that kept the Thunderbirds on the power play for close to 12 minutes in total, almost half of which involved a 5 on 3 advantage.  Matthews got his second goal of the game and 17^th of the season in the fourth minute to make the score 7 – 1.  Brandon Nicholson got his hat trick goal at 10:49 on one of the 5 on 3 power plays, deftly tipping a Matthew Sheeran shot from the point to raise his season total to eight.

The final marker came at 16:23 when Mark Walton notched his 13^th of the year on a delayed penalty after the T-Birds kept control of the puck and worked it around the Blazers’ zone for a good 30 seconds.  He took a pass from Kurtis Rumenovich and cut across the front of the net to flip the puck up over Frolek who was under siege for the whole period.

The second game of the series is again at the Interior Savings Centre, home of the WHL Kamloops Blazers, and starts at 1:00 PM on Sunday.  For those who arrive early, the jump around should begin at about 12:25 just outside the visitors’ dressing room with a lot of fresh material (some even sent up on the bus by injured defenseman and jump choreographer Garrett Holt).

Bird Droppings:  The shots on goal by period were 18-17-21=56 for South Island and 7-6-3=16 for Thompson… The win was Brandon Glover’s 10^th of the season, the first time a South Island goalie has earned 10 wins in a single season.  In the process, his goals against average dropped to 3.12…  South Island has now scored 136 goals in the regular season and allowed 135… The T-Birds’ scoring summary for Saturday included:  Rice (1G, 1A), Myron (3A), Bloomenthal (1G, 1A), Walton (1G, 2A), Gordon (1G, 1A), Matthews (2G), Kemmler (2A), Rumenovich (2A), Nicholson (3G, 1A), Sheeran (2A), Murphy (1A), Roorda (1A) and Bryan (1A). For Thompson, it included:  Donaldson (1G) and Tye Brandt (1A)… The T-Birds were 3 for 15 on the power play and a perfect 5 for 5 on the penalty kill… Taylor Hache tweaked his sprained ankle slightly and left the game with about 6 minutes left in the third period but is expected to play again on Sunday… As a testament to the Thunderbirds’ balanced scoring, the team now has 16 of its 18 skaters with point totals in double figures.  Chase Kaiser leads the team with 42 points, followed closely by Wes Myron with 39 and Ryan Matthews with 37.