Petterson's last-second buzzer beater sinks Knighthawks
Jan 12, 2025
It took until the 59:59 mark of Saturday's contest to decide a winner, but Clarke Petterson's last-second strike was the difference, as the Halifax Thunderbirds overcame the Rochester Knighthawks 19-18 at Blue Cross Arena.
Randy Staats led the way for the Thunderbirds, finishing the night with four goals and 10 points while Thomas Hoggarth had four goals and nine points. Petterson had two goals and six points and Dawson Theede two goals and three assists.
In his return to the lineup, captain Cody Jamieson also had a two-goal, five-point outing.
Drew Hutchison turned away 42 shots to earn his first win of the season.
The game opened with a back-and-forth between the two teams. Halifax jumped out to an early Staats opened the scoring before Jamieson nabbed his first of the year with a twister finish in tight. Johnny Pearson made it three in a row for the Thunderbirds before Graydon Hogg got Rochester their first with a power-play marker. Wake:Riat Bowhunter and Connor Fields traded goals to end the opening frame, leaving Halifax with a two-goal advantage early.
But from there, the game opened up. Theede and Hoggarth went back to back in the second quarter's opening minute and a half, but a three-goal run by the Knighthawks brought it back to a one-goal contest. Staats got one back with a jump shot that was placed perfectly in the top right corner, but after Fields and Jamieson each got another goal, Rochester had another two-goal run, courtesy of Ryan Smith and Fields, to knot things up at 8. Hoggarth got his second of the frame with under a minute to play in the half, but Smith had another with a second left to make it 9-9 at the break.
The teams came out of the half and continued their rampant play. Mike Robinson got his lone goal on the night off a long-range bouncer, however, Rochester got four of the next five goals after that. Thomas McConvey completed a hat trick, Josh Medeiros got his second in transition, and Despite a Theede answer, McConvey and Smith got the Knighthawks a 13-11 lead.
It was the Thunderbirds' turn to get in on the transition goals. Off a disallowed Rochester goal, Halifax got the play blown back in and pushed the ball, finding a streaking Hoggarth for his hat-trick goal. Just over a minute later, Staats got open on a chance and blasted a shot on the run home.
Going into the final frame, the teams were deadlocked at 13.
Starting off the fourth, Halifax got a four-goal run, sparked by Petterson, Staats, Jason Knox, and Hoggarth. That made it 17-13, but with time to get back into the game, Rochester tried to claw back. Ryland Rees got them within three, but Bowhunter pushed the lead back to four with 10:26 to play.
Matt Gilray got another transition marker a minute later. And the two teams traded chances without a goal until the 4:26 mark. Curtis Knight got another for the hosts. Smith made it a one-goal game with under two minutes to play, and in the final minute, Knight scored again to knot the game up once again.
Halifax was able to get a timeout with the shot clock off and 22 seconds remaining in regulation. The offence snapped the ball around the zone, and it eventually landed in the stick of Jamieson, who found Petterson at the top of the zone. He shrugged off a check and got a shot to fall with just 0.1 seconds left on the clock to walk the game off for the Thunderbirds.
With the thrilling victory, Halifax has back-to-back wins and sits at 2-3 for the season. The team will be right back in action next weekend, as they welcome the Knighthawks to Scotiabank Centre to finish off the season series on Jan 18. Opening face-off is at 7:00 p.m. AT.