Hill, Thunderbirds stymie FireWolves for season-opening win
Dec 5, 2025
HALIFAX, NS (December 5, 2025) -- The Halifax Thunderbirds put on a strong two-way display to open the season on Friday night, beating the Oshawa FireWolves 11-2 at Scotiabank Centre.
Clarke Petterson led the way offensively for Halifax, putting up a game-high five assists and one insurance goal. Randy Staats added a pair of goals and five points while captain Cody Jamieson finished with two goals of his own and four points.
But the best Thunderbird on the night was goaltender Warren Hill, who made NLL history, turning away 49 shots while becoming just the second goaltender in league history to allow only two goals in a regular-season contest.
The game opened with Oshawa scoring two of the opening three markers, both of which came out of the stick of Tye Kurtz. He got the scoring going at the 12:28 mark with a power-play goal, and despite a transition marker from Ryan Terefenko in the final two minutes of the opening frame, Kurtz answered back with his second under a minute later.
Dawson Theede found the back of the net with a power-play tally of his own to knot things up at two after 15 minutes.
Theede scored what would turn out to be the eventual game-winner to open the second, snagging a behind-the-back feed from Petterson one-handed and beating Doug Jamieson five-hole. Then, it was Staats' turn to get in on the scoring. He hammered a ball low to the far side 20 seconds after Theede's goal, quickly making it a 4-2 advantage for the hosts. With Halifax back on the power play in the final five minutes of the half, it was Jamieson outwaiting the defence and potting his first of the season.
Halifax carried that 5-2 advantage into the half.
In the third, both teams locked it down defensively, with Hill and Doug Jamieson going back and forth, making tremendous saves to keep their respective teams in the game.
Mike Robinson would find the goal to break the second-half deadlock in the fourth, stinging a shot short side to give Halifax a four-goal advantage with under 10 minutes to play.
Jamieson got his second, firing a twister five-hole and beating the Oshawa goaltender before Staats piled on, scoring a mirror goal to his first to make it 8-2.
From there, Halifax took advantage of the FireWolves pulling their goalie, scoring three times on the empty net. Colton Armstrong, Petterson, and Tyson Bell all got goals to seal the win for the Thunderbirds.
Sitting at 1-0 to open the campaign, Halifax will be right back in action next weekend with a tough task, as they head on the road to face the three-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits. Face-off is set for 8:00 pm AT.