Same Old at Burnaby Winter Club

South Island Thunderbirds, September 26, 2009

Some things just never seem to change.  Fresh coat of paint or not, when you first walk into the Burnaby Winter Club, you wonder how such a small and tired old facility could produce as many great players and teams as it has.  But then you look around at all those championship banners that blanket the walls and immediately you are struck by the rink’s pervasive air of superiority.  Even the roster sheets available in the lobby only list the home team, never the faceless visitors, to remind spectators who is most important in this contest.  And ultimately, there is the scoreboard at the end of the third period that invariably has the home team ahead and sends guests out the door with empty pockets and that hollow “thanks for coming” feeling.

Saturday night, the visiting South Island Thunderbirds arrived at BWC to face the Vancouver North West Giants and gave a very honest effort but could not pierce the Giants’ mystique or crack their aura of invincibility.  The 1 – 0 score at the end of the first period teased the visitors as the two teams felt each other out like a pair of boxers in the early rounds.  It was still only 2 – 0 at the end of two periods, though by then the Giants had the T-Birds on the run.  When the game was complete, the Giants had earned a 5 – 0 shutout, extending the T-Birds’ five year losing streak at BWC to 11 games.

The two teams battled through a fairly even first period territorially, though the Giants produced a few more quality scoring chances than the T-Birds.  Vancouver scored the only goal of the period at 3:55 when Curtis Loik skated onto a perfect lead pass from Steven Iacobellis, went in alone on the Birds’ goaltender Ryan Waldhaus and tucked a backhand through Waldhaus’ legs as Loik cut across the top of the crease.

The T-Birds’ best chance to tie the game came a few minutes later on a great rush by Mark Walton, who beat the Giants’ last defender wide, then cut across the front of the crease from left to right but could not beat the Giants’ goaltender.  The Giants outshot South Island 10 – 5 overall in the first 20 minutes.

After failing to capitalize on a power play opportunity in the first two minutes of the second period, the Thunderbirds got into penalty trouble, taking five straight minor penalties and keeping their penalty killers on the ice for 10 of 13 minutes.  The Birds’ penalty killers did a great job overall, killing all five of the Giants’ power play opportunities and keeping the score close.

Waldhaus stopped 16 of 17 shots overall in the period, the only blemish coming on a 2 on 1 rush with the two teams at even strength.  Iacobellis finished off the 2 on 1 perfectly, chipping Connor Rankin’s pass past Waldhaus before the netminder could get all the way across to the right post.  Spending so much time shorthanded, the T-Birds could muster only three shots on goal themselves.

The final period was easily the fastest and most entertaining of the game, both teams picking up the tempo considerably and creating more offensively.  While South Island got a total of 12 shots on goal and had a few excellent scoring chances, the Giants again got the only goals, scoring three times in less than five minutes in the middle of the period.

First, Rankin pulled the puck out of a scrum in the right corner and walked in on Waldhaus, beating him up over his left shoulder at 6:52 to make it 3 – 0.  Then just 90 seconds later, Iacobellis scored into a wide open net after the puck squirted out of a mad scramble in front of the South Island goal.  The Giants’ fifth and final goal came again from Rankin, this time finishing off a nice three way passing play that started with a turnover at the South Island blue line.

South Island head coach Rob Milliken felt his team had done a pretty good job in the first period, then let the game get away from them by taking too many penalties in the second period.  He gave high marks to Waldhaus who made 38 saves overall, challenged the Giants’ shooters all night, and “kept us in the game as long as he could – he really could not be faulted on any of the Giants’ goals”.

Milliken also praised the Giants’ Rankin, Iacobellis, Curtis Loik and Destry Straight, commenting on the big minutes they logged and the difficulties those “horses” caused for his squad.

The Giants are now 2 – 1 – 0 in their first three games of the 2009-2010 regular season while the T-Birds remain winless overall at 0 – 3 – 0.  The two teams play a rematch at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning at the same old BWC venue.

Can the Thunderbirds overcome the challenge to finally come away with some points at this venue?  You'd like to think so, but it would certainly help if they were to adopt the disdainful attitude of Curt Schilling in the Arizona Diamondbacks memorable 2001 World Series victory, when his famous response to a similar query about playing at Yankee Stadium was: “Mystique and Aura?  They are just dancers in a nightclub”.

Bird Droppings:  The final shots on goal were 5-3-12=20 for South Island and 10-17-16=43 for the Giants… South Island players took 10 minor penalties, 6 more than the Giants.  The Thunderbirds’ penalty killing was a perfect 10 for 10.  The Birds’ power play was 0 for 4… South Island forward Taylor Hache missed today’s game due to a nagging groin pull.  Defenceman Garrett Holt took only two shifts as he continues to recover from a shoulder strain… The team used two affiliate players, Jackson Skerratt and Ross Haskett, to help bolster the ranks… The Giants’ scoring summary included:  Loik (1G, 1A), Iacobellis (2G, 1A), Rankin (2G, 1A), Griffin Reinhart (1A), Straight (2A), Brandon Morley (1A) and Jarrett Martin (1A).