Andrew Kew scored 3:16 into overtime to give the Georgia Swarm an all-important 13-12 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds Sunday afternoon at Gas South Arena. With the win, the Swarm improve to 8-7, now in a four-way tie with Colorado, Vancouver, and San Diego. However, the Swarm hold the aggregate head-to-head tiebreaker among the four teams, allowing them to jump from 8th place to 5th place in the Unified Standings. Halifax remains in third place at 9-6 despite the loss, but missed out on a huge opportunity to move just one game behind league leaders Buffalo and Saskatchewan. Additionally, they are only a half-game ahead of fourth place Rochester, and one game ahead of the four 8-7 teams mentioned above.
Swarm jump out to early lead but trail at halftime
Georgia jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals from Seth Van Schepen (3:32), Andrew Kew (5:22), and Miles Thompson (11:02). Jake Withers responded seven seconds later for Halifax, then Dawson Theede followed (14:17) to cut the lead to 3-2 after one quarter. Goals from Kaleb Benedict (1:25) and Shayne Jackson (7:27 power play) pushed the Swarm lead back to three, 5-2. However, the Thunderbirds took the lead with a four-goal run. Cody Jamieson (7:49), Colton Armstrong (9:26), Randy Staats (10:06), and Theede’s second (11:07) put Halifax up 6-5. Bryan Cole (13:31) knotted the game at 6-6, but Clarke Petterson scored with just six seconds left in the half to give Halifax a 7-6 edge at halftime.
Swarm survive in OT in their ninth one-goal game of the season
Lyle Thompson (3:40) tied the game at 7-7 to open the second half scoring. Ryan Terefenko scored in transition for Halifax (6:02) to put them up 8-7, but Adam Wiedemann returned the favor 38 seconds later to tie the game at 8-8. Benedict’s second goal (9:58) and a marker from Brendan Bomberry (11:45) gave the Swarm a 10-8 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Theede (0:33 fourth quarter) traded goals with Jackson (6:38), then Thomas Hoggarth (8:33) and Jackson (8:55) did the same, making it 12-10 in favor of the Swarm. Georgia seemed headed for a two-goal victory when Jamieson scored his second (14:41) and Theede his fourth (14:57) to tie the game for the Thunderbirds with three seconds left. The teams headed to overtime, where Kew (3:16) sealed a victory for the Swarm.
It was the ninth one-goal game this season for Georgia; they are 5-4 in those games, and 3-1 in overtime contests. Georgia now looks towards a home-and-home series with Philadelphia over the next two weeks, before finishing the regular season hosting Buffalo. Halifax hosts San Diego in Week 19, then finishes with games at Buffalo and at Toronto.
Other Stats of Note
Thunderbirds: Theede (4g, 1a); Jamieson (2g, 1a); Petterson (1g, 6a); Staats (1g, 4a); Hoggarth (1g, 1a); Terefenko (1g); Armstrong (1g); Withers (1g); Mike Robinson (3a)
Swarm: Jackson (3g, 6a); Kew (2g, 1a); Benedict (2g); Cole (1g, 3a); Lyle Thompson (1g, 2a); Bomberry (1g, 2a)
Jake Withers (HFX): 25-28 FO; 21 LB; 2 CTO
Seth Van Schepen (GA): 1g, 5 LB, 3 CTO
Warren Hill (HFX): 43 saves; Brett Dobson (GA): 47 saves