The Halifax Thunderbirds found another way to victory.
En route to the National Lacrosse League’s best record, the Thunderbirds have rolled over their opponent offensively or locked them down defensively. On Saturday, they used a third-quarter surge to battle back from a three-goal deficit at halftime to earn a hard-fought 15-12 road win over the defending NLL champion Calgary Roughnecks at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Down 6-3 at intermission, the Thunderbirds (6-0) scored nine goals in the third.
“It is all about composure,” Halifax head coach Mike Accursi said in a news release. “We needed to try and match their intensity, and we didn’t in the first half.”
“Offensively we started to move our feet and move the ball,” added Thunderbirds forward Stephen Keogh, who led the offensive charge with five goals. “We started taking smart shots and they started dropping for us.”
Calgary – which entered Saturday with a 2-3 record with each of the three losses by a single goal – was strong out of the gate and scored the game’s first three goals. It was a commanding first half for the Roughnecks.
“There was no panic in this group,” face-off specialist Jake Withers said in the release. Withers dominated the Roughnecks’ Tyler Burton by winning 27 of 32 face-offs.
“We knew we had the guys in the locker room to make a big comeback in the second half.”
The tables did turn for the Thunderbirds, who came flying out of the break and scored three straight goals, capped by captain Cody Jamieson’s hat trick.
Calgary replied with two of its own to take an 8-6 lead. But the Thunderbirds took flight and the floodgates opened for them. They scored seven unanswered goals to close the third quarter.
Rookie Clarke Petterson also netted a hat trick and Ryan Benesch and James Barclay each potted a pair of goals for the Thunderbirds, who outshot the Roughnecks 64-45.
“It’s just offence by committee and everybody is just working for each other,” Keogh said. “We’re good when we are cutting through the middle and just opening up space for everybody.”
It’s the second road victory for the Thunderbirds, who travel to Toronto to face the North Division rival Rock on Friday evening. Their next home game is Feb. 15 versus the Saskatchewan Rush.
