Dec 17, 2017 | GeoffRead | 352 views
Hawks Bounce Back but Lose 4-2
Sometimes you lose the battle but win the war. That's what it felt like in the Hawks' 4-2 loss to Oakridge C6 Saturday night - the Hawks' second loss to a team from Oakridge in as many games. Despite losing the match, the Hawks largely outplayed Oakridge and, more importantly, came together as a team, passing the puck well and supporting each other on the ice, on the bench, and in the dressing room.
Unfortunately, the Hawks never led in the game, as Oakridge went up 1-0 mid-way through the first period after some blown coverage by the Hawks. The Hawks tied it up shortly thereafter, but then didn't score again until the dying moments of the game, by which time Oakridge had snuck three more by goalie Zach Read.
The goals against were hard-luck plays. On the second goal, left-side defenseman Pyper Baker, who otherwise had a great game using her speed and ability to read plays to good effect, had left the front of the net to help out her partner Noah Weber in the right corner but then blew a tire, which unfortunately allowed the Oakridge forward to centre the puck to not one but two Oakridge forwards all alone in front. The player who received the pass held the puck for what seemed like an eternity before firing it over Read's left shoulder and into the back of the net. On the third goal, Matt Hodgins, who played a good aggressive game on forward, circled behind his own net with the puck and saw Brendan Walsh, who also played up front on the night, breaking up the middle of the ice. Hodgins fired a hot pass towards Walsh but an Oakridge player read the play well, cut the pass off, moved to the middle of the ice, and threw a shot through traffic that found its way into the goal. The fourth goal was the type of marker you see on blooper reels, as an Oakridge player rifled a hard low shot on net and Read went into the butterfly to make the save. The puck, however, deflected off defenceman Jacob Grover's stick and took a high arc through the air, probably going about 10 feet off the ice, before coming down out of Read's reach and into the net. It's safe to say that on all three goals the bounces did not go the Hawks' way.
The Hawks did a lot of things well in the game. Walsh, for example, was rewarded for going to the net looking for rebounds when the puck fell in front of him after a nice shot from player of the game Callum Knapp. The result was funny but effective. Walsh, despite being less than 3 feet from the net, did a windmill P. K. Subban-style wind-up and hammered the puck off the post and in. It was like watching someone use a sledgehammer to tap in a nail, but you couldn't argue with the result.
The Hawks' second goal was also one of their prettiest of the season, as Owen Worby drove the net hard with the puck, after deking an Oakridge defender, drew the goalie towards him, and then slid the puck across the top of the crease to a hard-charging Hodgins who tapped it in.
More generally, the Hawks' forwards had a great game on the forecheck, hemming Oakridge in their end for long stretches. The defence also did an excellent job holding the puck in at the blueline to keep the pressure on. Several nice plays were made that did not produce goals. Worby and Cole Chick, for example, generated a beautiful chance off of the cycle as Worby took the puck along the left side and wrapped it around the boards behind the net. Chick picked it up moving towards the right corner but flipped a beautiful pass against the flow back to Worby who had moved towards the net off the wall. Worby hit a one-timer but as happened frequently on the night, the Oakridge goaltender made a nice save. Every forward, from Knapp to Nathan Senese to Chick, had at least one good chance to score on the night, but the Oakridge goalie played a heck of a game and stymied the Hawks time and time again. One gets the sense that if finisher Matt DiCicco had been available to play he could have been a difference maker in this one.
But the most important thing on this night was not the loss, but how the Hawks handled it. Instead of turning on one another and blaming each other for their misfortunes, the Hawks remained positive on the bench and supportive of one another. This was signalled by the parade of Hawks, led by Knapp, who tapped their goalie on the pads after the goals and by the fact that the Hawks followed Coach Mike Worby's pre-game dictum and gathered together after the game, praised each other's efforts, and skated off together. In the dressing room after the game, moreover, while the mood was understandably sombre, there was none of the negativity that had predominated after Wednesday's game. The Hawks in short, acted like winners even as they lost, laying the foundations for future success.
Go Hawks go!