The Halifax Thunderbirds are feeling in control, and they have a chance to clinch a spot in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) finals with a win at home this weekend. Halifax can do it Saturday when they host the Georgia Swarm, but if they lose, they’ll have another chance to do it at home Sunday. “It’s an unbelievable advantage that we get to use if we need it,” said Thunderbirds forward Jason Knox. The final game of the series, if necessary, was supposed to shift back to Georgia on Sunday. However, a scheduling conflict meant the Swarms home arena wasn’t available. “Due to previously scheduled, immovable commitments at the Georgia Swarm’s home venue, the League is unable to play a potential Game 4 in Georgia despite exhaustive efforts to find a workable solution,” said a statement from the NLL. Despite being the lower seed, the final and deciding Game 3 of the series was switched to Halifax. That felt like a win for the Thunderbirds who took the opening game of the best-of-three series 12-7. “It’s great to have, but hopefully we’re not going to let it get to a Game 3, that is our goal,” said Clarke Petterson, who is the Thunderbirds leading scorer in the playoffs. Looking at a chance to win their way into the championship finals is a position that seemed unlikely for Halifax midway through the season. It wasn’t easy for the Thunderbirds to break into the playoffs; they had to do so by winning their two final regular season games. “This Halifax team is not an eight seed,” said TSN lacrosse commentator Pat Gregoire. “They are much, much better than that. They just weren’t getting the bounces earlier in the year and they weren’t finding the ways to win.” Halifax started the regular season with promise by wining two straight games, but then things fell apart, as they went on to lose seven of their next eight games. With a 3-7 record just past the midway point of the season, the team was considered a long shot to make the playoffs. Despite that, the Halifax team believed in themselves. “It was like, let’s just figure it out on a day-to-day basis,” said Petterson. “Let’s have a good practice, let’s try and play our best lacrosse because we had a couple good games and a lot of really bad ones.” The NLL came out with their nominations for player awards like MVP, but no Thunderbirds made the list this season. That didn’t phase Knox, who said they focus less on individual achievements and prefer instead to focus on a team approach. “It’s not an individual sport right,” said Knox. “It’s a team sport. So, you need all 25 guys on the roster to be able to put a winning team together on the floor.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
