Oct 11, 2017 | Lloyd Williams | 425 views
MAKING NOISE ON THE BENCH GIVES HAWKS A BOOST
Our first game of the season had a little bit of everything and hopefully is just a glimpse of what this group is capable of, you could tell by the repeated pounding of the boards that this group of kids will be great teammates for the next several months. BIG plays, BIG saves and a couple of hard earned goals gave the kids plenty of reason to cheer each other on and the noise from the bench fired everyone up and changed the game.
Some shaky nerves seemed to have the Hawks 9 team handcuffed early in the game as the first half of the opening period was controlled by the Home team, defensively everyone skated hard but the puck just wouldn't get outside the blueline. Nolan Williams stayed calm and confident between the pipes and turned away everything that came his way giving his team a boost and the game slowly turned the other way giving us some scoring chances late in the period. Some noise from the bench seemed to light a fire in Carly Waldbrook as her hard work and excellent fore check rewarded Connor Mendes with a rebound that he made no mistake on and netted his first goal of the season near the 6 minute mark of the first period. The other Hagersville team came back hard for the balance of the period as they tried to earn the goal back but the Defense settled in and with an edge on the scoreboard they calmy cleared rebounds from their netminder. Late in the period Sam Heeg drew a penalty with some hard work out front of the net giving his teammates some time and space with a power play to finish the first period.
The second period was an end to end game but uneventful as the score remained the same and few shots at either end made it to the net as both teams found space to skate the puck. A penalty midway through the second gave the home team the man advantage but good defensive play and a steady goalie kept them off the board. Our defense seemed to gain some composure and shake the nerves on the power play as the balance of the second period pucks were cleared quickly from danger and held in the offensive zone for a couple of intense attacks.
The third period got under way and the attacks continued with our defense dumping pucks deep into the offensive zone and holding the blueline so our forwards could go to work, lots of scoring chances. Kaiden Schraa found the back of the net as he put a hard dump in through several feet and past the opposing goaltender to give us a 2 goal lead 2:41 into the final period. Again the home team pressed for a goal and several breaks up the ice looked promising but hard skating by the defensive pairings foiled any hope of an odd man rush and made Nolans job easy by keeping shots outside and in clear view. With the opposing goalie out the net for an extra attacker there was a few tense moments with a scramble in front of our net but team defense payed off one last time and the game finished with a shutout to start the season.
Goals - Conner Mendes, Kaiden Schraa
Assists - Carly Waldbrook