Birds Come Out Ahead in Sunday Scrap With Top Cats

South Island Thunderbirds, November 22, 2009

The South Island Thunderbirds hit four more posts on Sunday morning in their second game against the league leading Cariboo Cougars, which made six for the weekend, all of them coming at critical times in the two contests.  But they finally caught one decisive break that fit perfectly with another strong 60 minute effort to give the T-Birds a well deserved and very exciting 4 – 3 upset victory at Panorama Rec Centre.

With the score tied 3 – 3 and just 2.6 seconds remaining in the second period, the Thunderbirds’ Travis Stephens won a face-off in the Cariboo zone and managed to slide the puck to the net, where it somehow slipped between the pads of the Cougars’ affiliate goaltender Jared Rathjen and over the goal line with just 0.1 seconds showing on the clock. That was the overdue “puck luck” that the Birds needed and coming so close to the second intermission, the marker gave South Island a huge lift.

Both teams had a few good scoring chances in the final period though none of them were converted.  For their part, the T-Birds did not sit on the one goal lead and instead, pressed for an insurance goal.  Their excellent efforts were frustrated by Rathjen and three goalposts hit by Garett Kemmler and Matthew Sheeran in the first two minutes and by David Walchuk with just three minutes left.  At the other end, the Cougars had one particularly glorious chance as Tyson Witala had the whole net open on a cross-ice feed to the right face-off dot but his big one timer also found the crossbar at the 7:00 minute mark.

South Island’s penalty killers deserve a measure of praise as they did a great job in killing 6 of 7 Cougar power plays, including two back to back just after the mid-point of the third period.  Waldhaus certainly did his part as well in making the 4 – 3 lead stand up in the final 20 minutes, making 10 saves in that period and stopping 26 of 29 shots overall.

If anyone wondered whether the Thunderbirds could compete as well on Sunday as the team had on Saturday, that question was answered very early on.  The first period was one of South Island’s best, especially from a defensive point of view, as the team was very sound and efficient in the Birds’ end of the rink, limiting the Cougars to just six shots on goal and only a couple of scoring chances.

The T-Birds had lots of jump and opened the scoring on a sequence that started with Justin Polischuk who came off the cycle along the right side boards and played the puck back to Matthew Sheeran at the right point.  Sheeran pulled the puck along the blue line and then fired a wrist shot that was deflected in front of the net and up over Rathjen’s glove by forward David Walchuk at 3:51 for his second goal of the season.

Cariboo’s Seb Lloyd answered back quickly with the tying goal at 4:50.  Lloyd came off the side boards to pick up the puck off a face-off in the Thunderbirds’ end, skated unimpeded into the slot and fired a wrist shot from 15 feet that found the top right corner.   South Island's Travis Stephens had a couple of good scoring chances shortly after Lloyd’s tying goal but was stopped by Rathjen once and fired a wrist shot off the right post on the other.

The T-Birds dominated the first half of the middle frame and built a two goal cushion on a pair of quick goals in the 8^th minute. The first came from Dane Gibson, who knocked in a second rebound after Rathjen stopped a Kemmler slap shot and then foiled Mark Walton on the first bounce.  Without a line change, Gibson, Walton and Connor Krupa then came right back into the Cougars’ zone and worked a greasy play behind the net that Krupa ultimately converted by jamming the puck inside the left post.

Cariboo came back to tie the game with a pair of goals in the second half of the period.  Levon Johnson knocked his own rebound from close range past South Island netminder Ryan Waldhaus at 10:17 to cut the deficit in half.  Then Kale Burns did the same thing on the power play, firing a one timer from the right face-off circle, then following his own shot to bat the rebound past Waldhaus at 15:33.  Those two goals turned the momentum back in the Cougars favour until Stephens tallied at 19:59.9.

This was a huge win for the T-Birds and couldn’t come at a better time, as the team ended a seven game losing streak, finished the first half of the regular season with an historic win over the BCMML’s first place team and now heads into a bye weekend on a real high note.

In his post-game speech to the players, Head Coach Rob Milliken commended his squad for their strong effort in the weekend’s games and reminded them that the foundation was laid with the excellent work put in at the team’s practices earlier in the week.  As for the break on the game winning goal, he related the famous quote of Samuel Goldwyn:  “The harder I work, the luckier I get” and told the players that “You should be proud of your work this weekend against a very good team – now let’s try to build on this going into the second half”.

The win brings the T-Birds season record to 5 – 14 – 1 for 11 points, leaving the team in 9^th place, just one point behind the Valley West Hawks in 8^th position.  Cariboo remains in first place with a record of 13 – 5 – 0, good for 26 points.  In the tightly bunched BCMML standings, only four points separate the first six teams heading as the first half draws to a close for all 11 teams next weekend.

The T-Birds now have the bye next weekend before starting the second half of the regular season on the road on December 5^th and 6^th, when they travel to Maple Ridge to face the Vancouver North East Chiefs.  The Birds’ next home games are on the following weekend, when the BCMML defending champion Vancouver North West Giants come to the Island to play South Island in Lake Cowichan and Fuller Lake respectively.

As this weekend clearly shows not only here in Victoria but in a number of other upsets around the league, there is a pretty fine line between winning and losing in the BCMML.  This was just one game but the Thunderbirds had never beaten the league’s first place team before.  They proved something very important to themselves today and moved a step closer to figuring out how to get on the high side of that line more often.

Bird Droppings:  The final shots on goal were 9-19-8=36 for South Island and 6-13-10=29 for Cariboo… The scoring summary for the Thunderbirds includes:  Walchuk (1G), Polischuk (1A), Sheeran (1A), Gibson (1G), Walton (2A), Kemmler (1A), Krupa (1G) and Stephens (1G).  For the Cougars, the scorers included:  Lloyd (1G), Jorgensen (1A), Johnson (1G), Brennan (1A), Burns (1G), Manning (1A) and Cormier (1A)… On the penalty front, the Thunderbirds were assessed 8 minors for 16 minutes while Cariboo received 5 minors for 10 minutes… Waldhaus picked up his first win of the season and lowered his goals against average to 4.56 in the process… Goaltender Nic Renyard missed Sunday’s game after becoming the latest T-Bird player to come down with the flu, so there were five players missing from the lineup today.  Saanich Bantam AAA defenceman Nolan de Jong stepped in as an affiliate to fill one of those spots for a second straight day and did a great job… The Cougars were also missing three regulars today… The Thunderbirds are holding their 5^th annual Silent Auction fundraiser on Saturday, November 28 from 7:00 to 10:00 PM at the Prairie Inn with dozens of great auction items available.  Everyone is welcome... There was good news and bad news on the tournament front this week.  The bad news is that the team was not invited to the Mac's tournament in Calgary this year as only the BCMML's top 5 teams got the nod.  The good news is that the team has been accepted into the Richmond International tourney that runs from December 26 to 31.