VW Missing Parts But Keeps T-Birds in Rear View Mirror

South Island Thunderbirds, October 10, 2009

No one would wish misfortune on any player or team, but with four veteran forwards out of the lineup for the Valley West Hawks on Saturday (three to injury, one serving a suspension), the South Island Thunderbirds certainly enjoyed a better than normal opportunity to come away with a win in their first trip to the spectacular new Langley Event Centre.  The short staffed Hawks had other ideas however and refused to concede any ground to the fast improving Thunderbirds, getting the game’s final goal early in the third period to top the Birds 4 – 3.

The game lived up to the expectations for a very interesting matchup between two teams that have traditionally battled to the season’s final few games for a playoff spot.  Valley West came in to the weekend with a 3 – 3 - 0 record, having won three of their last four games, including a tough one on the road last Sunday in Prince George against the tough Cariboo Cougars.  South Island had started slower at 1 – 5 – 0 but gained confidence from its split of two close games last weekend with the Fraser Valley Bruins.  With the Hawks able to send only 14 of its regular skaters into the game, their home ice advantage was certainly diminished.

The Thunderbirds controlled most of the first period as Valley West took three straight penalties, though the Birds surrendered the game’s first goal between its early power plays.  At 7:34, Austin Vetterl scored on a two on one rush, taking the puck down the left side to the bottom of the face-off circle, then squeezing the puck between T-Bird goalie Nic Renyard and the left post as the other Hawk arrived at the crease.

The Hawks’ third penalty produced South Island’s tying goal on the power play at 15:02 on a play started by Renyard with a long saucer pass up to defenceman Garett Kemmler.  Kemmler moved the puck from the right point to Mark Walton heading down the slot and Walton buried a 15 foot wrist shot up high over the glove of Valley West’s netminder, Kirk Thomason.

Late in the first period, Renyard came up with big stops on a 2 on 1 rush and then a 3 on 2 opportunity as the Hawks peppered him with a total of six shots on goal in the last three minutes.

Valley West started the second period on the power play and took advantage, connecting for the Hawks’ second goal at 0:55.  Mitchell Guiel took a feed from Simon Horlick at the left face-off dot and blasted a one timer that beat Renyard short side.

Just a couple of minutes later, the Birds had a couple of glorious opportunities to tie the game when Valley West took two more penalties and gave South Island more than a minute playing 5 on 3.  The Hawks did a good job of clogging the shooting alleys and blocking shots and Thomason made a couple of key saves to preserve the one goal lead.

Valley West extended its lead at 8:42 on another 2 on 1 rush, this one finished off by forward Austin Plevy who looked off the pass and fired the puck in off the left post.  South Island got that one back just three minutes later on a nice effort by all three forwards, Cody Allison, Clay Carson and Dane Gibson.  Allison started the play, winning a battle for the puck and then taking a hit as he moved the disk up to Carson.  Clay then beat one defenceman and chipped the puck past the second d-man to Gibson.  Dane went in alone from just inside the Hawks’ blue line and beat Thomason up high with a quick wrist shot.

Once again, Valley West applied pressure in the last few minutes of the period but Renyard stood up to a couple of big challenges, one with Valley West’s stellar defenceman Mark Whitely at the edge of the crease and then making a breakaway save in the final minute.  A friendly post helped too as Braeden Monk rang a backhand off the crossbar with just 13 seconds to go.

At the second intermission, South Island Head Coach Rob Milliken challenged his players and demanded more to erase that one goal deficit and he got the response he asked for right away.  First, the T-Birds had to kill another penalty, which they did well, allowing just one long shot on goal.  Then at 2:24, the Birds’ defenceman Garrett Holt played the puck ahead to Mark Walton who found Dayne Ellison in the neutral zone and Ellison went in to the Hawks’ zone with Sam McMullen on a 2 on 1.  Ellison fanned his attempted pass but then made no mistake with his shot, roofing it over Thomason’s blocker to tie the game at 3 – 3.

Before South Island could build on its momentum, Valley West put the Birds back on their heels with what proved to be the game winning goal at 5:25.  Ironically, it came on what might have become an odd man rush in the T-Birds’ favour as Garett Kemmler wheeled around his own net and played the puck smartly up to the hash marks to trap three Hawks down by the T-Birds’ goal line.  Unfortunately, Whitely broke the play up at the blue line and immediately played the puck back down to the threesome around the Birds’ crease.  In the scramble that followed, Vetterl got his second goal of the game, chipping the puck up off the right post and then in off Renyard.

Both teams did a good job of limiting each other’s chances for the rest of the game and, while the Thunderbirds applied some pressure in the game’s final five minutes, Thomason did not have to do anything too special to preserve his team’s lead.  Overall, give the Thunderbirds a slight edge in quality scoring chances in a game that could have gone either way.

Milliken was disappointed with the outcome but continues to see progress, saying:  “We are doing a much better job in our own end now and had a chance to win for the third straight game.  Today was a missed opportunity but hopefully we can bounce back with a win tomorrow, which would give us another big lift heading home.”

These same two teams hook up again on (Thanksgiving) Sunday morning at 10:30 AM, this time at Langley’s George Preston Recreation Centre.  The Thunderbirds will be even more determined to get something out of this weekend’s trip to move up in the standings and get back to within four points of Valley West.  But as today showed, outnumbered or not, beware of these wounded Hawks.  They will certainly take the turkey off the South Island platter if they have the chance.

Bird Droppings: The shots on goal were 15-8-7=30 for the T-Birds and 11-10-8=29 for Valley West… The scoring summary for South Island includes:  Walton (1G, 1A), Kemmler (1A), Renyard (1A), Gibson (1G), Carson (1A), Allison (1A), Ellison (1G) and Holt (1A).  For the Hawks, the scorers included:  Vetterl (2G), Brock Wellicome (1A), Braxton Bilous (2A), Guiel (1G), Horlick (1A), Plevy (1G, 1A) and Whitely (1A)… The penalties assessed totaled 5 minors for 10 minutes against South Island and 6 minors for 12 minutes against Valley West… South Island was 1 for 5 on the power play and 3 for 4 on the penalty kill.