T-Birds Focus Fades in Season Finale

South Island Thunderbirds, February 24, 2010

If nothing else, there was an unfortunate symmetry to the final game for the 2009-10 South Island Thunderbirds in Abbotsford in that the season ended just the way it started – with a blowout.

On Wednesday, playing its sixth straight road game and fourth in five days (with another 33+ hours spent on the team bus and ferries since last Friday), the mentally and physically spent Thunderbirds were left as road kill by the Fraser Valley Bruins in a merciless 11 – 1 drubbing at the Abbotsford MSA Arena.

Not that the season’s first or last games define the team’s performance over the course of the 40 games played.  Just the opposite in fact as this was the first game in two months in which the outcome was already decided before the third period.  As Team Russia also experienced this day in a convincing 7 – 3 pummeling delivered by Team Canada, one team can compete very effectively one day and then get thumped the next.

This result was no accident or mere quirk of fate however.  From the T-Birds’ pre-game warm-up to the final minute of play, it was pretty clear that the group had not come to play.  And whereas the team has ordinarily demonstrated incredible resilience in past weeks to overcome early deficits and engineer a comeback, there appeared to be little left in the tank in Game 40.  As the goals against mounted, you could see the T-Birds’ energy level and discipline drop proportionately.

On the other hand, from the Fraser Valley perspective, this was a day on which they could do no wrong.  Their shots found the openings and picked the corners and they converted an inordinately high percentage of their scoring chances while frustrating all but one of the South Island chances.

Initially the play looked slightly more promising for the visitors, who actually outshot the Bruins in the first 2/3 of the first period.  But the Bruins got on the board first at the five minute mark with a shorthanded goal scored by Brandon Daase after a clean breakaway earned by taking the puck off a South Island d-man at the Fraser Valley blue line.  Starting goaltender Nic Renyard made a fine initial save, but Daase picked up his own rebound and wheeled around the net to slip the puck in the net before the sprawled Renyard could recover.

The second goal came in very similar fashion, though at even strength this time.  This time it was Dalton Sward who had a breakaway from center and he made an excellent deke before flipping the puck over Renyard’s blocker at 11:01.

The wheels really started to come off in the last six minutes of the period.  First, Brendan Kroeker was allowed to walk in alone on Renyard from the left face-off circle and beat him with a backhand down low at 14:01.  Then, Ryan Waldhaus replaced Renyard in net and after T-Bird defenceman Alex Kersch was handed a major penalty for a late hit, the Bruins scored twice on the power play with Stephen Hodges and Dakota Schipper doing the honours, the latter with just six seconds left in the period.

Now down 5 – 0, the T-Birds regrouped at the first intermission and played much better in the second period.  Still, the Bruins got the only two goals, which came 71 seconds apart at the halfway point.  Kroeker notched his second of the game with a one-timer off a centering pass from behind the South Island net, then Brad Parker got on the board, converting a 2 on 1 off a turnover in the T-Birds’ zone.

The last period saw the T-Birds’ devoting their energy to the offensive end but pay less attention to their duties defensively at the period’s end.  The Birds did manage one goal on a beautiful coast to coast rush by Garett Kemmler who slipped the puck through a Bruin defenceman’s legs as he reached the Bruin blue line and then finished off the play with a wrist shot that found the top right corner of the net at 8:38.

The Bruins notched their eighth goal off another turnover that allowed Jason Siebert to fire a wrist shot from the slot over Waldhaus’ shoulder at 6:15.

Unfortunately, the game’s end did not come quite soon enough for the Birds as they allowed three goals in the last 92 seconds.  Schipper and Parker both scored on breakaways and then Parker knocked a rebound in from the doorstep with just 13 seconds left to create the ignominious 10 goal margin.

With the pair of losses to the Bruins, the Thunderbirds’ overall record finishes at 6 – 29 – 5 and they remain in 10^th place overall in the 11-team league with 17 points.  The Bruins’ record goes to 16 – 20 – 2 and they remain in 8^th place with two games left to play.

Clearly, the South Island team endured a tough season, filled with injuries and the challenges of youthful inexperience.  At the same time, and though it was less evident today, there was considerable progress made in terms of the team’s ability to compete game in and game out over the 40 games and 5 months.

And there is always next year and a fresh start to look forward to.

Bird Droppings:  The final shots on goal were 7-8-12=27 for South Island and 14-13-20=47 for Fraser Valley… The scoring summary for South Island included:  Kemmler (1G) and Walchuk (1A).  For the Bruins, the scorers included:  Daase (1G, 1A), Clayton (3A), Frizzell (3A), Sward (1G), Kroeker (2G, 1A), Hodges (1G, 2A), Parker (3G, 2A), Wertman (3A), Schipper (2G), Siebert (1G, 1A) and Liem (1A)… South Island received 1 major penalty, 3 minors and a misconduct for 21 minutes.  Fraser Valley picked up 4 minor penalties for 8 minutes… The Birds were 0 for 4 on the power play and 3 for 4 on the penalty kill… Missing from today’s line-up were forwards Mark Walton and Taylor Hache and defenceman Matthew Sheeran (who will undergo shoulder surgery in three weeks)… The T-Bird players are not done yet as they will now begin preparation for spring “prospect” camps run by BCHL and WHL teams.  A few will also see some time with VIJHL teams who have just started their playoffs… The team managed to see the Canada vs Russia quarterfinal game today on the ferry home.  The T-Birds’ Awards Banquet is on Friday night at the same time as the semi-final game, which will serve as the pre-awards entertainment.