Oct 17, 2017 | GeoffRead | 313 views
Third Period Collapse Dooms Hawks in Season Opener
The West London Hawks Major Peewee Team C6 started their season opening game against Tony Verberne's West London B6 team strongly, but sagged in the third period and wound up losing 6-3 after entering the final frame with a 3-1 lead. Coach Mike Worby remarked that his team's conditioning seemed to be lacking, and promised some hard skating at practice.
The Hawks played well in the first period, establishing a strong forecheck and playing with energy. The tone was set by winger Matt Hodgins who played the game's first shift like a bull in a China shop, causing several turnovers and making a fantastic defensive play on the back-check. Goalie Zach Read also started the game well, making several good saves in the first two periods.
The Hawks were rewarded with a pair of nice goals in the first, as Matt DiCicco tallied the Hawks' first goal of the season unassisted off the rush with just over 3 minutes to go in the period, and Owen Worby followed up with a laser beam of a shot that found the net assisted by defenceman Noah Weber and winger Cole Chick. Worby then bulged the twine again in the second after bulling his way through a crowd assisted by DiCicco and Chick in the second and the Hawks were in control of the game.
However, going into the third, Coach Verberne's team gained momentum and was rewarded with two goals Read would no doubt like to have back through the five-hole. Read will have to learn to shake off bad goals as, having gained confidence with strong play in the first two periods, he was visibly rattled by the first one through the wickets and that led to the second. Then, Hodgins took a tripping penalty in the neutral zone and B6 poured it on, picking up a power play goal and two others on which Read was not at fault before the game was over.
The result did not really reflect the game as the two teams were evenly matched for much of it. Strong efforts were turned in by the Hawks' defence of Pyper Baker, Brendan Walsh, Weber, and Jacob Grover, but coach Worby felt his club needed to play with more structure. The break out, in particular, clearly needs work.
The Hawks will have to shake off this defeat quickly as their next opponent is the always tough South-east Bandits on Saturday.
Go Hawks go!