'Tips Topped by T-Birds' 2-on-1 Torrent

South Island Thunderbirds, September 05, 2009

Score one for the Confederates.  (But remember that one battle does not win the war).

In the first of four exhibition games between the Island’s two Major Midget hockey teams, the South Island Thunderbirds drew first blood with a hard fought 6 – 3 victory over the North Island Silvertips at the Nanaimo Ice Centre on Saturday night.  The game went very much according to script between these two intense rivals, with the South racing out to a 4 – 0 lead, only to see the North come storming back to make it 4 – 3 in the third period.  It took a late goal and an empty netter to finally seal the deal for the visitors.

If it wasn’t a pre-season affair, the Silvertips’ head coach Steve Parsons might have lost a little sleep on Saturday night trying to rid his mind of the recurring images of Thunderbird forwards bearing down on the North Island goal with only a single defender in the way.  South Island enjoyed the benefit of more 2 on 1s in the first 30 minutes of the game than most teams (or even Charlie Sheen) get in a month.  Those odd man rushes produced four of the T-Birds’ first five goals and spelled the difference in the end.

There was plenty of pace right from the opening face-off and South Island goaltender, 15 year old Nick Renyard, was tested early.  On the game’s first shift, the Silvertips’ centre Evan Richardson showed his blinding speed to go around a T-Bird defenceman, then made an excellent centering pass that was tipped to the net, forcing Renyard to do the splits to get his right leg on the puck.

Just before the four minute mark, the Birds got on the board on their first 2 on 1 rush.  The opportunity was created on a nice play by defenceman Matthew Sheeran, who broke up a North Island rush at the South blue line, chipping the puck past the Silvertip attackers and up to forward Kyle Richter.  Richter streaked into the North zone, looked to pass and then buried a beauty wrist shot up high over the glove of North Island veteran goalie, Kolding Larson.

Somewhat against the run of play, the South went up 2 – 0 at 12:16. Clay Carson created a turnover at the North Island blue line that immediately turned into a 2 on 1 down low.  Connor Krupa deflected Carson’s quick pass into Larson, but the rebound bounced right back to Krupa who batted it out of the air and into the net.

Renyard had to be sharp throughout the period as North Island had some great chances in that opening frame, outshooting the T-Birds 18 – 8 overall.  The Silvertips moved Renyard repeatedly side to side and he responded very well to the challenge in keeping the Silvertips off the board.

The Birds really stepped up their quality of play in the second period, which went very much their way with the shots on goal 15 – 5 in their favour.  Once again, they tallied early, increasing their lead to 3 – 0 at 1:32 of the period on another 2 on 1 opportunity.  This time, it was Dayne Ellison who made a perfect saucer pass to spring Ross Haskett who went in alone on Larson, deking right and tucking the puck low inside the post.

Just 20 seconds later, South Island forward Dayne Ellison took a pass from Mark Walton at the North blue line, advanced a couple of strides and then from the top of the left face-off circle fired a wrist shot through the legs of the lone defender that handcuffed Larson and rolled off his glove into the net.  That made it 4 – 0, and inspired the Birds to keep the pressure on for the rest of the period, though they were unable to get another one past Larson or Kiefer Giroux, who relieved Larson at the period’s mid-point.

A four goal lead with one period remaining might have seemed insurmountable to a first time observer but the North has erased leads like that more than once when these two teams have met in the past and the ‘Tips were not going away quietly this day.  In what seemed to be a calculated tactic, the momentum changed right after the face-off to start the third period when North Island’s Jaden Schmeisser baited the T-Bird’s Sheeran and provoked a fight in the first few seconds of play.  When the dust settled, both Sheeran and Schmeisser received game misconducts but the T-Birds were assessed an extra five minute major penalty.

South Island picked up another minor penalty half way through the major to give the North a two man advantage.  Pouring on the pressure playing 5 on 3, the Silvertips got their first goal at the 3:20 mark.  Alex Kurulak took a pass from Jason Austin just outside the crease and, after Renyard stopped Kurulak’s initial point blank shot, Kurulak was able to knock in his own rebound.

Still with the man advantage, the North cut the margin to two with another marker at 4:10, this one coming off a Travis Flug shot from the point that produced another rebound for Adam Smith, who quickly banged it past Renyard to make it 4 – 2.

The North was inspired at that point and drew within one goal at 11:52 on a nice play by Taylor Gray, who circled around the right face-off circle and walked in alone on Renyard, firing a wrist shot that Renyard got a piece of but could not prevent from rolling over the line.  The game was then very much up for grabs, which is completely the third period norm when these two intense rivals hook up.

The clinching goal for South Island came with just 4:48 remaining on – you guessed it – a 2 on 1 that saw Jackson Skerratt deliver a perfect pass over the stick of the North Island defender to send Travis Stephens in alone on Giroux.  Stephens made a quick move left and squeezed the puck inside the left post to restore the T-Birds’ two goal advantage.

With just 1:09 remaining and the North Island goal empty, Dane Gibson took a pass from Justin Polischuk along the left boards and, from just inside the center line, slid the puck into the North Island net to make the final score 6 – 3.

Game 2 in the four game set is Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan.  Let's see if it lives up to a historian's description as the "Battle at Big Stick".

Bird Droppings:  Both teams are sitting out a number of veteran players this weekend as the respective coaches still have a few roster spots open and are using this weekend’s pair of games to make their final decisions.  For South Island, forward Taylor Hache and defenceman Garrett Holt sat out (giving both an extra week to heal injuries) along with goaltender Ryan Waldhaus.  Sheeran will miss Sunday’s game… Shots on goal were 8-15-13=36 for South Island and 18-5-8=31 for the North... South Island was assessed a total of 62 minutes in penalties while the North received 38 minutes... All six T-Bird goals were scored by rookies.  The summary for the T-Birds included: Richter (1G), David Walchuk (1A), Sheeran (1A), Krupa (1G), Carson (1A), Haskett (1G), Ellison (1G, 1A), Walton (1A), Stephens (1G), Skerratt (1A), Gibson (1G), Polischuk (1A).