Mar 21, 2016 | GeoffRead | 747 views
Hawks Book Ticket to Semi-Finals
The West London Hawks A4 had a statement game tonight, winning 6-2 over a Bandits team that had embarrassed them 11-7 the last time they met. It was a great team effort, personified by player of the game Cody Michiels, whose strong two-way play on the blue line was rewarded on the score sheet with three assists. More importantly still, Michiels broke up several rushes and moved the puck out of his zone with authority to help stave off the Bandits' attack.
Michiels' fellow blue liners on the night - Josh McCarvell, Noah Weber, Brendan Walsh, and Pyper Baker, likewise turned in excellent efforts after having been victimized by the Bandits in their previous match up. The Hawks' defence showed that it can bear down, hold a lead, and play with moxy when the stakes are high. Walsh and Michiels both fired good shots on the net from the point, Weber played well against the rush, and McCarvell and Baker had their usual strong games along the boards - Baker also made several nice passes, which, unfortunately did not lead to her getting an assist on this night.
In net, Zach Read had a relatively quiet game but made some big stops nonetheless. One was a highlight reel save: with the Hawks' netminder on his back and seemingly at the mercy of a Bandits sharpshooter he did his best Dominik Hasek impression and threw his arm and leg in the air to rob the Bandits of a goal. The fact that this came in the third with the game not yet salted away heightened the drama.
Up front, special teams made a big difference for the Hawks as they scored two power play goals and added a short-handed marker for emphasis. The short-handed goal was a beauty by Owen Worby who danced around three Bandits before roofing it on the short side on the dumbfounded Bandits goaltender. Worby was picking the corners all night, and his short-handed marker both completed a hat trick and saw him reach the 30 goal plateau for the first time in his fledgling career. Worby, Owen Verberne, and Theo Enns earned special praise from the coaching staff as well for hustling back hard on the back check. This made a huge difference in the game as the back pressure from the forwards allowed the Hawks D to shut down the Bandits' scorers. Trevor Commanda likewise worked hard on the boards getting the puck out and had a couple good chances to score in front; hard-luck forward Matt Di Cicco's scoreless drought continued as he missed at least four glorious chances in front of the Bandits net. But if Di Cicco keeps going to the right place at the right time he's bound to cash in again before the season is over. Centre Callum Knapp helped out as he always does carrying the puck out of danger in the Hawks' end and added a rocket to the top corner for a the all-important fourth goal that seemed to take some life out of the Bandits. Jacob Bamford also chipped in with a goal off a nice hard back-hand on the rush, and Enns, not to be denied, tallied his team-leading 67th goal of the season to open the scoring on the game's first shift.
All in all, it was about a complete a game as you could hope for, and it secured the Hawks a berth in the final four, as they look likely to face the second-ranked Bandits team in the semi-finals. The Bandits were the league's top team for the first 3/4 of the season, but have faltered a bit down the stretch and the Hawks took home a hard-fought tie against them the last time the two sides met. It should make for an exciting game Saturday. Stay tuned!