Mar 05, 2018 | GeoffRead | 529 views
Hawks Go 1-1 on Key Weekend
The West London Hawks C6 went into the weekend needing to win the remainder of their playoff games to keep their slim hopes of making the semi-finals alive. They played gamely but alas came up short, dropping a 5-0 decision on Saturday to their West London rivals B6 in a game that was much closer than the final score suggested, before outworking and beating the Bandits B6 on Sunday by a score of 3-1.
The Saturday game was a frustrating one, as the play was quite even in the game but the Hawks couldn't cash in on their many opportunities while B6 proved more opportunistic in converting their chances. Several players missed excellent chances to score - Owen Worby, Matt DiCicco, Nathan Senese, and Matt Hodgins, for example - off rushes or on one timers out front. Many of the Hawks' opportunities came off their high pressure forecheck with Callum Knapp leading the way, as he has been doing for much of the second half of the season, outhustling players much larger than him while digging the puck out in the corners and working it up ice along the boards. In the offensive end, while the results weren't there it has to be said that the effort was, so there can't be any complaints from the coaching staff.
Defensively, on the other hand, the Hawks were much too passive, standing still and watching B6 whiz around their zone. Such a play led to the first B6 goal, when Owen Keenan took the puck in the right corner and skated, unimpeded, around behind the Hawks' net before tucking a wraparound in on the far post. Similarly, B6's second goal saw goaltender Zach Read make the initial stop only to have Owen Verberne, standing, inexplicably uncovered in front of the net where he was easily able to cash in the rebound.
The game was close until late in the third period when with just over two minutes to go the score was still 2-0 but the puck squirted into the Hawks' end with Tyler Hicks in hot pursuit, again all alone. Read probably could have come out and played the puck but hesitated allowing Hicks to step in and place a perfect shot in the top corner over the goalie's shoulder.
With that goal, the Hawks seemed dispirited and then let B6 pot two more before time ran out, On the final goal, Read made 3 saves before B6 managed to get the fourth shot by him in a sign of how poorly the team was playing in front of their goaltender by that point.
The game also featured a few bizarre moments. Cole Chick took an entirely uncharacteristic penalty when he ran a B6 player from behind into the boards. When asked by the coaches what he was doing on the play, Chick mumbled, "I don't know," so presumably he just had a bit of a brain cramp. Likewise, Worby, frustrated by some slashes and hooks he took that went uncalled, retaliated on a B6 player with a chop of his own and got two minutes.
But the weirdest moment came in the early stages of the third. As the Hawks broke up the ice on a two on one the referees blew the whistle as B6 goaltender Miigizens Kicknosway had some of his equipment off. The Hawks' bench couldn't figure out what had happened or why, if Kicknosway had taken his pads off during the play, he wasn't assessed a minor for delay of game. Only after the game did the referees explain that, in fact, the goaltender had been working on his equipment when they had dropped the puck. Why the referee who was aware of this hadn't immediately blown the play dead is unclear, but he was young and no doubt learning on the job.
In the Sunday game, after a talking to from an unusually loquacious Coach Mike Worby about their defensive zone lapses and a call from the coach to play with pride with their hopes of making the final four gone, the Hawks responded with their best effort in weeks, outhustling the Bandits and coming away with a 3-1 victory. The Hawks finally found some offense in this game, as goals came from Hodgins, DiCicco, and Worby. DiCicco and Worby both had strong games taking the puck to the net and Worby and Knapp, both at centre, continued to shine in the corners and along the boards. Chick took another penalty but had a bounce-back game as well, working hard at both ends, as did Senese and Hodgins. Hodgins' goal came off a turnover at the blueline where he intercepted the puck strode to the top of the face off circle and blasted it buy the goalie on the glove side. DiCicco's came off a nice rush and pass by Worby. And Worby's marker was an empty net goal to seal the deal for the Hawks.
In net, Read also had his finest effort of the season, stopping quite a few shots from in close and being particularly good at smothering his rebounds. He let one by him that he should have had, having not gotten his pad down quite quickly enough, but more than made up for this gaffe with some stellar work the rest of the game.
The defence also recovered from a slightly off game the day before, and clearly benefited from the return of Brendan Walsh to the lineup. While the defensive corps can play with three defencemen, they clearly have more jump with four and don't wear down as the game goes on. Jacob Grover was working hard battling for the puck; Pyper Baker was back to making excellent decisions moving the puck out of the Hawks' zone, Noah Weber, although he had a few dubious flights of fancy carrying the puck, was battling hard defensively, and Walsh was steady and solid.
This game also featured its own weird moment. With the Hawks leading 1-0 Worby made a lovely move coming out of the corner, deked the goalie right out of his net, and clanged a backhand off the post before chopping in his own rebound. The crowd went wild and the Hawks appeared to be on their way to victory with a 2-0 lead. But seconds before his partner was going to drop the puck at centre ice, the senior referee suddenly signaled no goal and called for the face-off to be moved to the Bandits' end. As a sign of how late this call came, the timekeeper had already written in the scoring information on the game sheet. The referee's explanation for this seemed to be that the goalie had shown him after the play that the net had been off. Even if the net had been off, however, a referee cannot change the on-ice call based on what he thinks may have happened because of something he discovers afterwards: the call on the ice stands. But that's what he did. This seemed particularly unfair given that even if the net had been off, it had had no bearing on the outcome of the play. And when the Hawks' bench staff protested too vociferously, the Hawks were assessed a minor penalty to boot. Luckily, the Hawks weathered the storm and went on to win the game, so ultimately, there was no harm done. But in all this reporter's years of playing and coaching hockey, that was the single strangest call I have ever seen.
But that bizarre call aside, the Hawks couldn't complain about the refereeing too much in this one. Worby was rightly awarded a penalty shot, for example, when he was hauled down on a breakaway (unfortunately he put his attempt off the crossbar), and the same referee who had made the call on the disallowed goal made a point of making sure that Weber got credit for an assist on Worby's empty netter.
So the Hawks have three games to go with nothing but pride and fun to play for. It's a new position for the team, which has been in contention every year since the team's core formed way back in Novice, for either the B or A division championship. But it takes the pressure off and allows the Hawks to play a little looser, perhaps, which isn't such a bad thing.
Go Hawks go!