Second Straight Saw-Off Gives Birds Step-up in Standings

South Island Thunderbirds, February 14, 2010

While the BCMML’s playoff picture goes down to the wire for the top eight teams, there continues to be a close battle for position at the other end of the standings.  The South Island Thunderbirds picked up their second straight tie on Sunday afternoon in Kamloops, extending their season best unbeaten streak to three games, and moved up into a 9^th place tie with the Kootenay Ice.  Both teams are just one point ahead of the Thompson Blazers, who remain in 11^th (last) place.

Sunday’s game at the Interior Savings Centre (the home of the WHL’s storied Kamloops Blazers) was quite different than Saturday’s, which saw the T-Birds make a miraculous third period comeback from a 4 – 0 deficit.  The rematch with Thompson was ragged at times but was one that the Island visitors felt they should have won as they enjoyed a 3 – 2 third period lead, outshot the Blazers by a total of 35 to 23 overall and enjoyed the better chances in the game’s latter stages.

For the second straight day, the Blazers seized the early lead, taking advantage of two power play opportunities in the game’s first six minutes to register the first seven shots on goal.  The last of those found the back of the South Island net right after the second penalty expired as defenceman Chase McLeod’s wrist shot from just inside the South Island blue line slipped past a partially screened Ryan Waldhaus in goal for the T-Birds.  McLeod’s first goal of the season came at the six minute mark and proved to be Thompson’s last shot on goal of the period.

The Thunderbirds came storming right back and maintained a significant edge in play for the duration of the period.  They peppered Thompson netminder Wade Moyls with 11 shots in the final 14 minutes and scored after a flurry of chances at 8:48 to tie the game at 1 – 1.  The scoring play started with a solid forecheck by Justin Polischuk, who met a Blazer defenceman along the end boards to the right of the Blazers’ net and came away with the puck.  Polischuk fed Clay Carson on the other side of the net and Carson walked out in front, beating Moyls with a wrist shot to the top right corner for his 4^th goal of the year.

South Island had all the momentum with them in the second period and took their first lead of the weekend at 2:12 on a somewhat lucky power play goal.  Regrouping just as the power play started, Brandon Parmar fired a pass from the face-off circle in his own end that was intended for Cody Allison at the center line.  Allison could only tip the puck off the boards and it rolled behind the Blazers’ defencemen towards the Thompson net.  Speedy Dane Gibson outraced the defenders and got to the puck six feet outside the crease where Moyls had come to play the puck away.  With one hand, Gibson managed to get his stick on the puck first and chipped it past Moyls and into the Thompson net.

For most of the next 10 minutes, the T-Birds maintained their edge in play and it looked as if another goal for the visitors might break the game open.  But Moyls kept the T-Birds from getting that two goal lead and in the final eight minutes of the period, the Blazers came back stronger to even the shots on goal and, ultimately, the score as well.  The tying goal came on the power play with just 1:56 remaining when an otherwise harmless slap shot from the blue line was deflected down past Waldhaus off Shane Danyluk’s stick or body in front.  It was Danyluk’s 4^th goal of the weekend series.

South Island Head Coach Rob Milliken admonished his team at the second intermission for letting the quality of their play slip in the latter half of the middle frame and challenged them to play their best hockey in the game’s final 20 minutes.  The message obviously hit home as the Birds came out with a much stronger effort and carried the play by a pretty wide margin in the third, outshooting the Blazers 15 – 6 and earning several more quality chances.

The Blazers were forced into a couple of early penalties and, after narrowly missing on the first one, the Birds connected on the second.  The go ahead goal came at 5:38 on a hard low slap shot from the right point off the stick of Brandon Egli that was tipped past Moyls by Mark Walton in front, giving Walton his 17^th "Mark-er" of the season.

One brief defensive lapse allowed the Bruins to draw even again.  At 7:26, Landon McGillvray was surrounded by three South Island defenders in the slot but was still able to spin and whack a bouncing puck past Waldhaus.

From that point, most of the chances belonged to South Island, the best of which was Cody Allison’s with just a few minutes remaining.  Coming down the middle on a 2 on 1, Allison took a perfect pass from linemate Dayne Ellison and from 12 feet out, took aim over Moyls’ glove but fired the puck just wide of the post and off the glass.

The single point earned by South Island gives them a total of 17 for the season with a record of 6 – 25 – 5, keeping them one point clear of the Blazers, whose record is now 7 – 27 – 2.  With their two wins in Victoria, Thompson takes the season series with the T-Birds 2 – 0 – 2.

Next weekend, the Thunderbirds make the long bus ride to Prince George to face the Cariboo Cougars, who are just two points back of the first place Vancouver Giants with a record of 24 – 9 – 3.  One of those Cougar losses came at the hands of the T-Birds who split the pair of games with Cariboo when the Cougars visited the Island in November.

The T-Birds would of course rather be in the Cougars’ position but there will be no problem for the Island team to get up for a pair of games that have so much meaning for their opponents.  And with all but two of their skaters now healthy, the Birds know that their team’s best hockey is still ahead of them.