Walton Scores Two More as T-Birds Drop C's

South Island Thunderbirds, October 17, 2009

Remember the lyrics to the famous old Jerry Reed song “When you’re hot, you’re hot…”?  Given that it topped the charts back in 1971, Mark Walton may never have heard that tune, but his current goal scoring streak has certainly got some of the team’s parents humming the chorus.

Over the past 5 games, the 16 year old forward for the South Island Thunderbirds has put together a scoring streak that has to rank as the best in team history.  He scored the last two goals on Saturday night, his 7^th and 8^th in the last 5 games, to provide the winning margin in the T-Birds’ 5 – 3 victory over the Greater Vancouver Canadians at UVic’s Ian Stewart Complex.

Walton’s heroics straddled the second and third periods and each time extended two goal leads that his mates had built up.  The Birds pumped in four goals in the middle frame to take control of the game, the sixth period out of the previous ten in which the team has scored at least three goals.  So yes, as much as any H1N1 virus, scoring is contagious and Walton's "fever" is spreading.

Coming into this weekend, the Canadians were in second place with a record of 5 – 2 – 1 and had maintained a stingy goals against average of just 2.50 goals per game.  The T-Birds started the weekend in 9^th place but had won two of its previous three games, scoring 22 goals over that span.  The game matched up 16 year old goaltender Alex Ahnert for the Canadians, sporting a tidy 3 – 0 – 1 record, against South Island’s 15 year old netminder Nic Renyard, who was 2 – 3 – 0.

The first period saw the Vancouver squad take the early lead on a goal by Brodyn Nielsen at 7:13.  Right off a face-off in the Birds’ end, he slid over to the inside edge of the right circle and was all alone for a back door feed from Ryan Olsen.  Renyard had no chance on the one-timer.

South Island came back in the middle of the period and with some effective fore-checking, the territorial play swung in the home team’s favour.  The Canadians kept the Birds to the outside however and did not allow much in the way of quality scoring chances.  In the last third of the period, the C’s took over as the Birds struggled to get the puck past their own blue line.  Renyard stood up well to the late period onslaught and made some big stops to prevent the visitors from doing more damage.  The Canadians outshot the T-Birds 13 – 8 overall in the first 20 minutes and had half a dozen good opportunities to add to their lead.

But how quickly the game changed ater that first intermission as the momentum and overall play seemed to turn on a dime.  Just 30 seconds into the second period, South Island forward Justin Polischuk raced onto a pass from Brandon Parmar along the left side boards.  Just over center, as he was about to take a hit, Justin fired a hard pass over the sticks of two defenders that hit the tape of linemate Travis Stephens in full stride at the Vancouver blue line.  Stephens went in alone on Ahnert, faked left, pulled the puck right and then neatly tucked it through the five hole to draw his team even at 1 – 1.

That goal clearly inspired the T-Birds and less than three minutes later, just before the end of a power play, Brandon Egli made it 2 – 1 for the home team.  After some good work by Sam McMullen and Matthew Sheeran to keep the puck inside the Canadians’ zone, Egli stepped around a defender and walked into the right face-off circle to blast a slap shot past Ahnert to give South Island a lead that they would not ultimately surrender.

At 6:57, McMullen added to the South Island lead, taking a pass from centre David Walchuk down low in the left face-off circle.  Sam’s wrist shot hit Ahnert in the chest as he came out to challenge the shooter  but the puck bounced right back along the goal line.  Sam picked up his own rebound and then alertly slid the puck back into the crease from that impossible angle as Ahnert tried to get back into position and somehow the puck found its way into the net.

Late in the period, South Island tallied again on the power play, this time on a 5 on 3 opportunity.  From the right point, defenceman Garrett Holt dragged the puck to the middle, then passed to Polischuk on the right side.  The puck went down low to Walton, who then wheeled around the right circle as Polischuk headed to the net.  Mark found an open lane and wired a wrist shot past the goalmouth traffic and over Ahnert’s blocker to make the score 4 – 1.

Vancouver then killed the T-Birds’ 5 on 4 advantage and in the final minute, cut the deficit to two with a goal by Cameron Lawson.  The Canadians won a face-off in the Birds’ end and the puck was played back to Lawson at the outside edge of the left face-off circle.  His slap shot found Walton’s shin pad half way to the net and caromed past Renyard to give the Canadians a lift and some hope heading into the final period.

For the first nine minutes after the break, the Canadians controlled the play and had a few excellent chances to cut further into the Thunderbirds’ lead, including a 3 on 1 break in the first minute and a clear breakaway at the five minute mark.  Renyard again made some key saves and looked very steady, with good rebound control, so that the Canadians had very few second chances.  The Birds’ defenders also did a good job of keeping the Canadians and the puck out of harm’s way around the crease.

At 9:17, Walton put the game out of reach with his second goal of the game and 9^th in 9 games this season.  This time, he intercepted a clearing attempt along the left side boards in Vancouver’s end and then simply blasted a slap shot that trickled into the net off Ahnert’s glove.

From that point, the Thunderbirds did a good job of shutting things down and making the Canadians repeatedly have to move the puck the full length of the ice.  The C’s did manage to score once more in the game’s final minute when a turnover deep in the South Island zone was picked up by Ryan Olsen and then converted by Jeremy Gossard alone in front of Renyard but there were no further threats in the waning seconds.

South Island Head Coach Rob Milliken was very pleased after the game, saying:  “Obviously, our play elevated in the second period and that was the difference.  But that’s a good team that we beat today, which shows again how far we have come in the past three weeks.  We look like a completely different team now than we did a month ago.”

The win for South Island is the team’s second straight, but first on a Saturday.  The Birds will be trying to earn its first weekend sweep when the two teams play again on Sunday morning at 10:30 AM in Fred Wurtele Arena at the Naden naval base in Esquimalt.

Now about that scoring binge, it is a lot about confidence and a positive state of mind.  So it might be a good idea to download Reed’s good old cowboy song for a little pre-game reminder to Mark and his teammates to just keep “rollin them bones”.