Mar 19, 2018 | GeoffRead | 465 views
With Nothing to Play For, Hawks Lose 9-2 to West London Rivals
The Renegades' Curse continues as former Hawks Owen Verberne and Jacob Bamford led their team to victory over their former club, with each getting a hat-trick as West London B6 downed C6 9-2 last night. One team - C6 - was fighting for its playoff life while the other - the Hawks - were playing out the string, and the difference showed from the first drop of the puck as B6 was hungrier for most of the night, winning the little battles that were key to its emphatic 9-2 thrashing of the Hawks.
Really, there wasn't much to cheer about in this game for the Hawks. Goaltender Brendan Walsh was left on his own, especially in the first period, and couldn't perform the heroics that would have been necessary to keep his team in the game. The defense let Bamford, in particular, skate circles around them at times in embarrassing fashion. The forwards, while they battled hard along the boards did not do a good job on the forecheck, letting B6 wind up in their zone on the rush and carry the puck all the way down the ice. The Hawks generated a fair number of shots, but the lack of resolve shown by the club on this night was evident in the fact that juicy rebounds sat in the slot with no Hawk in sight to profit from them.
One bright spot on the game were the two goals by Matt DiCicco, both of which were beauties. The first came off a hard-charging rush up the wing in which the big winger cut to the net and then went to his backhand to roof the puck over the prone Miigizens Kicknosway. The second came on a similar play as DiCicco split the defence and went "bar-down" on the B6 netminder.
Another was the hard work of a few players. Call up Miles Peterkin may have been the most consistent Hawk on the ice on both the forecheck and the back check. His hard work was rewarded with an assist on DiCicco's second goal. Co-players of the game Zach Read and Jacob Grover (I think? I only caught the tail end of the speech) both hustled hard on the night as well, with Grover doing his best to fend off B6 and Read refusing to be outworked on the boards.
Alas, these journeymen efforts were not enough to inspire the Hawks who were never really in this game. Hopefully, they can rebound next weekend and finish their season on a high note with a couple of wins.
Go Hawks go!