The Hawks took on Bandits A6 on Sunday
January 7th, and once again ran into a familiar foe: a hot goaltender. As
a result, the Hawks played gamely but dropped a 5-4 decision to their Bandits
rivals.
In a familiar pattern of late, the Hawks outplayed the Bandits and fought hard to get back into the game repeatedly, but ultimately came up short. The Bandits scored four goals where they picked the top corners on goalie Zach Read, and one squeaker went in that the goaltender would no doubt like to have back. That said, Read also made some good and timely saves to keep his team in the game on wide open chances. Conversely, the Hawks came back to tie it at 1-1, and then again at 2-2, and then fought back from a 5-2 deficit to make it 5-4 and nearly score with Read pulled for an extra attacker. Unfortunately, they fell just short of the comeback.
Goals in the game came off the sticks of Matt DiCicco, Callum Knapp, and two from Owen Worby, including the fourth goal, which was a beauty. Pyper Baker stepped up on a pass from the Bandits in the neutral zone and picked it off before firing a cross-ice pass to Worby who skated to the face-off circled and went "bar-down" as the Hawks like to say off the crossbar and in the top right corner. Worby's other goal was also memorable as it came off a rebound created by a strong rush up his off-wing from Matt Hodgins.
Cole Chick also had a strong game, skating well and finding ways to work the puck out front, and Nathan Senese was buzzing around the net all night. The troika of Jacob Grover, Baker, and Brendan Walsh also stood up well under the pressure of playing with just three defence and generally minimized the Bandits' A-grade chances.
Go Hawks go!