Captains Key Comeback in T-Birds Tie With Hawks

South Island Thunderbirds, January 16, 2010

When the South Island Thunderbirds’ coaching staff named their captains last fall, little did they know that after 27 games, those four players would only have played a full 60 minutes together four times.  In a season that has seen the team suffer a lengthy string of injuries and struggle to earn just 12 points out of a possible 54, is it a coincidence that in those four games, the team’s record is 2 – 1 – 1?

On Saturday morning in Kelowna’s Memorial Arena, playing together for the first time since October, the quartet (defencemen Garrett Holt and Garett Kemmler and forwards Mark Walton and Justin Polischuk) assumed key roles in erasing a three goal deficit and, in dramatic fashion, conjured up a shorthanded goal in the game’s final minute to earn a 5 – 5 tie with the Valley West Hawks.  It may not have been the Birds’ most technically sound performance of the season but it was certainly one of the most exciting and uplifting contests for the South Island players and their supporters. 

Whether you are a coach, scout, parent or simply a fan, you have to recognize and admire the character and resilience that is evident when a team that is playing only for pride digs deep to overcome the adversity of a large deficit, especially to a good team in the final period.  Those are the qualities that you hope to see emerge in any team's dressing room.

Early on, it looked as though the resurgent 7th place Hawks (4 – 1 – 1 in their last six games) may be on their way to a blowout victory as the team led 3 – 0 after the game’s first 10 minutes and 4 – 1 after one period.  Most of their damage was done within a two minute stretch that started at 8:36 with a goal by Tyler Basham, who finished off a 2 on 1 with a wrist shot from 18 feet that buzzed past T-Bird goaltender Nic Renyard’s blocker.  Just 21 seconds later, Austin Vetterl finished off a 3 on 1 by banging a centring pass under Renyard from just outside the crease.  Then at 10:12, Mak Barden raced down the ice to win a loose puck trickling slowly toward Renyard, then went around the goaltender and flipped the puck over the stopper's outstretched glove.

Brandon Egli cut Valley West’s lead to two goals with a power play marker at 15:54, taking a pass back from Clay Carson and blasting a slap shot from just outside the top of the right face-off circle that found the net behind the Hawks’ goalie Derek Dun.  But then with just 36 seconds remaining in the period, the Hawks Mike Stenerson answered back with a power play goal of his own, taking a nice “10 to 2” pass from Austin Plevy and quickly roofing the puck from just 10 feet out before Renyard could slide across to cut off the shooting angle. 

Overall, the Hawks scored four times on a total of 10 shots in the period, while the T-Birds tallied once on 8 shots in that opening frame.

The second period turned substantially in favour of the South Island squad as the T-Birds forced penalties and enjoyed several more scoring chances than their opponent.  At 8:19 of the period, Walton fired a wrist shot past Dun from about 18 feet for the team’s second power play marker.  Only 64 seconds later, the team struck again, this time on a rebound of a Holt shot that bounced to Dane Gibson standing in the left face-off circle.  Gibson was quick to fire the puck past Dun to cut the lead to 4 – 3, while still leaving well over three minutes of power play time after a Valley West forward was assessed a five minute major for a hit from behind.  (That hit crumpled T-Bird affiliate defenceman Nolan de Jong and took him out of the game with a leg injury).

The Hawks survived that penalty kill and came back stronger in the latter stages of the period.  Forward Colton Mackie made a nice move to get in alone on Renyard and scored with just 2:34 left in the period, which extended the Hawks’ lead and sent the two teams to their respective dressing rooms with the score 5 – 3 in the Hawks' favour.

Head Coach Rob Milliken encouraged his players between periods and reminded them that they had done a much better job of competing in the second period than they had in the first.  That set the stage for the late game heroics to play out.

After killing two straight penalties early in the final frame, South Island reduced the lead to one with an even strength goal  by Justin Polischuk, who took a feed from Walton and fired a wrist shot from the slot just inside the left post for his 8th marker of the year at 7:11.  Walton almost tied the game 30 seconds later when he blasted a slap shot from just inside the blue line that beat Dun, but clanged off the crossbar and harmlessly out of play.

The score remained 5 – 4 until the final minute. At that point, the South Island players were still working hard to come back but struggled to get the puck out of their own end and ultimately took a high sticking penalty with just 1:20 left on the clock.  The Hawks sent out their power play unit while South Island countered with the team’s four captains.  Rather than fade away, somehow the Thunderbirds needed an opportunity to score and, with some great determination and daring, they created their last chance.

The tying goal was a thing of beauty and started in the South Island end.  With just under 60 seconds to go, a Valley West forward gained the left side of the South Island zone but Holt stepped up to challenge the puck carrier and then followed the puck when it was played back to the left point.  As Polischuk attacked the Hawks’ defenceman, Holt caught the defender by surprise and joined in the battle.  Holt came up with the puck and, seeing Polischuk head out of the zone, chipped it off the boards and past the Hawks’ point man.  Polischuk skated on to the puck and when he looked up, saw that he had a 2 on 1 opportunity with Walton.  Streaking down the right side,  Polischuk kept his head up and as he approached the net, outwaited the sliding defender and found an opening to slide the puck backhand perfectly to Walton.  Mark knocked it past Dun before the goalie could slide across and finished a big play delivered at the perfect time.  It was Walton's team leading 14th goal of the season.

There were still 53 seconds to go and the Thunderbirds had to kill the Hawks’ power play.  Leaving the same four guys on the ice, the T-Birds had no difficulty clearing the puck and avoiding giving up the tying marker.  It was the third straight penalty kill that period on which the Hawks did not get a single shot on goal.

With the tie, the T-Birds’ record improves to 5 – 20 – 2, good for 12 points, and leaves the squad in 10th place, two points back of the Thompson Blazers.  Valley West’s record goes to 12 – 14 – 3, which keeps the team in 7th place, four points back of the Vancouver North East Chiefs in the three way battle for the last two playoff spots.

The teams face each other for the last time in the regular season here in Kelowna on Sunday morning, this time at the Capital News Centre at 10:00 AM.  The teams are 1 – 1 – 1 head to head so will both be looking to win and earn the series victory.

With the team’s record, South Island is unfortunately reduced to playing the role of spoiler but as they showed today, that is a role that they take very seriously.  It appears that if the team can keep its leaders in the line-up, the squad can give any team in the league a pretty good run for their money.

Bird Droppings: The final shots on goal were 8-11-6=25 for South Island and 10-9-4=23 for Valley West…  The scoring summary for the T-Birds includes:  Egli (1G, 1A), Carson (2A), Walton (2G, 1A), Gibson (1G, 1A), Holt (2A), and Polischuk (1G, 1A)… South Island was assessed 6 minor penalties for 12 minutes while the Hawks received 5 minors, 1 major and a misconduct penalty for a total of 25 minutes…  The Birds were a stellar 3 for 6 on the power play and 5 for 6 on the penalty kill with a shorthanded goal… The team put 20 players on the ice for the first time since October, though that number includes a couple of affiliate Bantam aged players, defenceman Nolan de Jong and forward Jack Palmer.  Two regulars were missing today, including forward Taylor Hache and defenceman Alex Kersch who are both out of action indefinitely… De Jong suffered a badly bruised knee that will sideline him for the rest of the weekend… Last night’ s BCMML All-Star game finished in a 6 – 6 tie... The team headed over to Prospera Place on Saturday night to watch the Red Deer Rebels take on the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL.  T-Bird alumni Simon Witt (son of current T-Bird Manager Chris Witt) was in the line-up for Red Deer along with 2008-09 BCMML scoring champ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.  Witt was +1 and assisted on the third goal in an exciting 4 - 3 Rebel victory while Nugent-Hopkins was named the second star of the game.