Foiled Again But Not For Lack of Chances

South Island Thunderbirds, January 30, 2010

There is an old axiom that “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.  Saturday, at Weyerhauser Arena in Port Alberni, the South Island Thunderbirds took their shots and got 38 of them on the North Island Silvertips’ net.  That is a few more than their opponent managed at the other end and well above the T-Birds’ season average.  If the law of averages applied, a good outcome would have been predicted.

Of course, not all shots are created equal and in any particular game, goaltenders have a big say in the matter.  Saturday’s outcome was determined, as it is in most games in the BCMML, by a few critical plays made on the ice at key points in the game.  Those plays, particularly a few made by North Island’s league leading scorer Evan Richardson, rookie defenceman Kade Pilton and goaltender Sean Maguire, turned a pretty closely contested game in the North’s favour and left the T-Birds frustrated again in a 4 – 0 defeat.

If you focused on “quality” chances, you would probably give the edge to the Silvertips, who managed 35 shots on goal themselves and generated a few more true scoring opportunities in the first period and early part of the third than the South.  But amongst the T-Birds’ 38 shots, there were more than a handful at the higher quality end of the spectrum and while Maguire certainly deserves credit for the shutout, the Birds’ shooters were not at their sniping best.

The T-Birds arrived with five players out of the line-up due to injury, leaving just 13 healthy skaters and only three of their usual six defencemen.  That forced tall rookie forward David Walchuk to play on the back line instead of up front and again meant that each of the defencemen played 30 minutes.

The first period was not particularly crisp for either side, both teams being ineffective on their pair of power play opportunities but still producing 28 shots on goal between them.  The first goal of the game came just after the 15 minute mark and was a product of an ill-timed South Island line change.  As Pilton brought the puck over the center line, the South Island forward line headed off the ice and the outnumbered defencemen backed up below the hash marks.  That allowed Pilton to skate down to the left face-off dot in the T-Birds’ zone, from where he wound up for a full slap shot and blasted the puck through South Island goalie Nic Renyard into the net.

With just under two minutes to go in the opening frame, the Silvertips connected again.  This time, it was the dangerously quick Richardson positioned in the left face-off circle wheeling with the puck, faking a move to the slot, then turning back and spinning around to slide a backhand along the ice that beat Renyard just inside the left post.

South Island came back and had the better chances in the second period, though neither team was able to score.  The defensive coverage was better in that 20 minutes and the shots were reduced accordingly, finishing 9 – 8 that period in the T-Birds’ favour.  Both teams hit the goalpost, Mark Walton doing the honours for South Island in the third minute and North Island suffering the same fate later on.  In the period’s final few minutes, the Birds missed on a pair of breakaways on successive shifts, first by Connor Krupa (who was slashed on the play but got no call) and then by Kyle Richter (who was slashed and drew a penalty instead of the penalty shot that South Island supporters felt it deserved).

With the game still very much on the line starting the third period, North Island took advantage of a good bounce on an early power play opportunity.  Pilton moved along the blue line from the left point and fired a slapshot that went wide left but bounced straight back to Brent Baltus standing at the edge of the crease.  Baltus rapped the puck into the open side of the net before Renyard could get back to the post and the Silvertips had a three goal lead that was clearly going to be hard for the Birds to overcome.

While the Silvertips kept coming hard in the period’s first half, Renyard held the fort until the T-Birds turned things around in the game’s final 10 minutes and brought steadily more pressure to the North Island net.  The Birds had several excellent chances to score, especially on the power play, but were not able to solve Maguire to get on the board.  The score remained 3 – 0 until there were just three minutes left in the game, when Richardson picked up a loose puck at the South Island blue line and flashed his quickness to get to the net on a partial breakaway, finally lifting the puck over Renyard from the inside edge of the right face-off circle.

The win snaps a three game losing streak for North Island and gives the Silvertips a badly needed pair of points in their struggle to fight off the Valley West Hawks in the battle for the BCMML’s sixth (and final) playoff spot.  For South Island, the loss was their second straight and keeps the team in 11^th place, trailing the Thompson Blazers and Kootenay Ice at the bottom of the league’s standings.

The same two teams play again on Sunday at 3:00 PM at Howie Meeker Arena in Parksville, which will be the fourth and final meeting between these two teams this season.  South Island will be trying again to close the gap between the two teams and gain some more tangible measure of their improved play than the shot clock showed this day.  And according to the law of averages, if the T-Birds outshoot their opponent again…