It's Over - Birds Break Out in Bruins Barn Burner

South Island Thunderbirds, October 04, 2009

With a cumulative total of four goals scored in their first five games, the “over/under” on the offensive output for the South Island Thunderbirds on Sunday was definitely “1”.  But if you had ignored the form chart and played the “over”, you likely would have had no shortage of takers and then laughed all the way to the bank as the Thunderbirds tripled their season output in just this one game.

It was a good thing they did as every one of the T-Birds’ eight goals was needed to secure a nail-biting 8 – 7 victory over the Fraser Valley Bruins in a wild finish at Fred Wurtele Arena on the Naden naval base.  The game evolved into a crazy action packed special teams battle in which South Island scored four power play goals but also gave up no less than four shorthanded goals to the ultra aggressive Bruins, including three in the last nine minutes of the game.  Those late goals for Fraser Valley gave them renewed life and created a thrilling ending for the second straight day.  Turning the table from Saturday’s finish, it was South Island’s turn to hang on for the team’s first victory in their sixth game of the 2009-10 regular season.

As the Thunderbirds’ Head Coach, Rob Milliken, said after the game:  “If someone had suggested that we would win 8 – 7 today, I would have bet a lot of money against a score that high.  But we really had great contributions offensively from a lot of players, including many whose work did not show up directly on the score sheet.  Hopefully, we can use this as a springboard to get more consistent scoring output going forward.”

For the Thunderbirds, the big point getters were Mark Walton (whose hat trick gave him five goals for the young season), Kyle Richter (two goals and one assist), Brandon Parmar (one goal and three assists) and Dane Gibson (three assists), all of whom gave full value for that production.

The game certainly finished better than it started for the home team.  Just 18 seconds into the game, the Bruins got on the board after an attempted “D to D” pass behind the T-Birds net caromed off the side of the net and out in front to a couple of waiting Bruins.  After a couple of shots in the scramble in front of South Island goalie Nic Renyard, the puck bounced out to the left side where Cale Bechtel was able to flip a backhand into a big opening.

South Island erased that lead at 5:15 of the opening frame on the power play when Richter came up the right side boards and passed to Parmar up high, then headed to the net and took the return give-and-go pass, quickly firing the puck past Brandon Stone as he tried to get back across.

Just over two minutes later, while South Island was again on the power play, the Bruins’ Steven Hodges put his team back up by one, taking the puck into the T-Birds’ zone on a 2 on 1 and then burying the shot from the left face-off circle, banking it in off the right post.  Late in the period, South Island survived a 5-on-3 opportunity for Fraser Valley and headed to the dressing room down 2 – 1 after being outshot 15 to 8 overall.

The Thunderbirds’ offence came to life for the first time this season in the second period, connecting four times in total. Mark Walton got his first of the day, deflecting a Garett Kemmler one-timer off a Garrett Holt feed on the power play at 1:18. Then at 9:35, Brandon Parmar fired a stretch pass from his own zone up to Dane Gibson just outside the Bruins’ blue line.  Gibson tipped the puck up over the last defender, which allowed Richter to skate onto the bouncing puck and go in the rest of the way alone.  He pushed it forward towards the goal, then displayed a wonderful touch as he deftly flipped the still bouncing puck up over Stone’s glove for his second goal of the day.

Less than two minutes later, the T-Birds went up 4 – 2 on a nice play that was started by Gibson in the corner.  He pulled the puck out of the corner and played it back to Parmar at the point, who immediately spotted Connor Krupa at the inside edge of the left face-off circle.  Krupa took the pass and then beat Stone with a quick low wrist shot just inside the right post for his first goal of the regular season.

Still not finished, South Island went ahead by three on Mark Walton’s second goal of the game.  This time, affiliate defenceman Garrett Hayden found Krupa down low with a good pass and Krupa slid the puck across to Walton on the opposite side of the net.  Walton’s one-timer was simply too quick for Stone.

The Birds would have loved to take that lead to the dressing room but Fraser Valley reduced the margin by one with just 36 seconds remaining on a bit of a lucky bounce.  Bechtel attempted a shot from the left face-off dot but it was blocked by Garett Kemmler and got caught up in his jersey.  When it dropped back to the ice, Bechtel got his stick on it first and banged the puck low past a surprised Renyard.

Starting the third period on the power play, the Thunderbirds controlled the play and then scored again just six seconds after the penalty expired.  In similar fashion to the Bruins’ first goal, an attempted pass behind the Bruins’ net deflected out in front to Richter all alone.  His point blank shot was stopped by Stone but the puck was played back to the point where Parmar was waiting and wired a wrist shot up high to beat Stone on the blocker side.

The T-Birds now up 6 – 3, if you thought the game was over, you could not be more wrong as the game became like a day at the zoo with all the cages open.  Hodges quickly answered again for Fraser Valley with a great individual effort, pulling the puck out of a battle near the point, making his way to the slot and then picking the top right corner with a perfect wrist shot.

At the period’s mid-point, Walton got his hat trick goal to put South Island back up by three at 7 – 4.  The play started with a pass around the boards from Matthew Sheeran to Gibson behind the net, then Gibson found Walton in front and Mark made no mistake with another quick shot past Stone’s glove.  When Fraser Valley took another penalty shortly after that goal, the T-Birds had all the momentum but quickly surrendered it by giving up the Bruins’ second shorthanded marker, this one coming on a long slap shot from Devon Allenby, who blasted a shot from the left point in off the left post.

Taking the momentum right back again, Justin Polischuk scored what proved to be the winning goal on the same power play at 12:20, pulling the puck from behind the red line and stuffing it past Stone on the short side to give his team an 8 – 5 lead.

Give those Bruins credit for intensifying their efforts further as they became even more physical and rambunctious than ever.  That effort saw them take two more penalties with seven and three minutes remaining respectively, but convert those shorthanded situations incredibly into two more goals, the first by Dakota Schipper, who intercepted a pass up the middle and beat Renyard with a quick wrist shot.  The other came from Devin Potomak who went wide carrying the puck into the South Island zone and then from the bottom of the left face-off circle found an opening over Renyard’s right shoulder.

Suddenly, with 2:37 remaining, the score was 8 – 7 and the Thunderbirds were back on their heals.  Their task of protecting that narrow lead became even tougher with 1:09 to go when one of their defencemen was sent to the penalty box for roughing.

In the game’s final minute, Fraser Valley played with the net empty to add the sixth attacker and they buzzed around the South Island zone.  Renyard made a couple of fine stops before the puck was played back to the blue line in the centre of the ice with about 15 seconds remaining.  As the Bruins’ defenceman wound up for the shot with a crowd of players in front of the net, T-Birds fans couldn’t help but brace for the worst.  Fortunately, Mark Walton made like the Canucks' Ryan Johnson and positioned himself perfectly in harm’s way so that the shot deflected off his shins to the side boards where it was cleared out of the zone by another Thunderbird teammate.

The frenetic back and forth action finally came to an end and the Thunderbirds had their first two points of the season.  With the improvement shown this weekend, it should not be long before they add to that total.

The win improves their record to 1 – 5 – 0 and notably leaves the Thnderbirds just one point behind their last year’s pace.  The Bruins move to 2 – 4 – 0 on the season and two points ahead of South Island.  Next week, the South Island squad travels to Langley to face the Valley West Hawks, who are 3 – 3 – 0 after splitting this weekend with the tough Cariboo Cougars.  The Thunderbirds’ next pair of home games comes in two weeks, when they are back at the Ian Stewart Complex and Naden rinks again to host the invariably stingy Greater Vancouver Canadians.

Eight goal games for the Thunderbirds will always be an exception (an average of four per game generally being close to the best in the league) but hopefully the visitors’ nets at the South Island arenas will more frequently be viewed as “red light” districts in the weeks ahead.  For the time being, stay with the "over" in relation to the average.

Bird Droppings:  Shots on goal were 15-9-15=39 for Fraser Valley and 8-16-10=34 for South Island… The scoring summary has a total of 22 points to allocate, including:  Walton (3G), Parmar (1G, 3A), Polischuk (1G, 1A), Kemmler (1A), Holt (1A), Gibson (3A), Krupa (1G, 1A), Sheeran (1A), Hayden (1A), Richter (2G, 1A), Stephens (2A).  For Fraser Valley, the scorers included: Bechtel (2G), Kroeker (2A), Daase (1A), Hodges (2G), Sward (2A), Clayton (1A), Allenby (1G), Schipper (1G) and Potomak (1G)… The penalty minutes totaled 6 minors for 12 minutes to South Island and 11 minors and a game misconduct to Fraser Valley for 32 minutes… South Island was 4 for 11 on the power play and six for six on the penalty kill… Forward Taylor Hache missed both games again this weekend, still recovering from a groin injury.  He is expected to play next weekend.  Defenceman Brandon Egli also missed this weekend with a broken hand that is likely to keep him out for a few more weeks.  Defenceman Garrett Holt played a few shifts this weekend but was on very limited duty while recovering from a shoulder injury… The team has now scored 12 goals in six games for an average of 2.0 per game.  Defensively, the team has surrendered a total of 38 goals for an average of 6.33 goals per game.  The team’s power play is 6 for 38 cumulatively for a success rate of 16 percent.  On the penalty kill, the team is 33 for 39 for an overall success rate of 85 percent.