Hawks Play Spoiler on Last Weekend of the Season and Win Two Games, News, HL - Major PeeWee - C6, 2017-2018, CHL Peewee (West London Minor Hockey)

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Mar 26, 2018 | GeoffRead | 882 views
Hawks Play Spoiler on Last Weekend of the Season and Win Two Games
It's too bad some lacklustre play in February and early March put the Hawks out of contention for the semi-finals because they rediscovered their form on the final weekend of the season. While the Hawks were not in the running to make the final four, they were facing the two teams that were battling each other to grab the fourth spot, playing West London A6 on Saturday and North A6 on Sunday. The Hawks didn't play favourites, defeating both contenders 5-1, which had the effect of eliminating North A6 and allowing West A6 to advance. From the Hawks' point of view, it was a strong showing to wrap up the season.

The formula in both games was the same. The Hawks used a strong forecheck to create turnovers; the wingers, especially Matt DiCicco and Matt Hodgins, used their outside speed to create chances off the rush; the forwards backchecked hard to help the defence keep the opposition on the perimeter in the Hawks' zone; when breakdowns did occur goaltender Zach Read made timely saves - he stopped a breakaway in both games - giving his defence the confidence to play well in front of him; the defensive corps - down to three members with Brendan Walsh off on some military black ops (we'd tell you where he was but then we'd have to kill you) - of Pyper Baker, Noah Weber, and Jacob Grover kept it simple and moved the puck steadily up the boards or, with growing frequency, smartly reversed the play around the net and up the opposite side. When you combine this strong team play with some beautiful and timely goals, particularly off the sticks of Owen Worby and DiCicco who both had huge weekends offensively, the Hawks were unbeatable.

Worby and DiCicco put up gaudy numbers as Worby had a hat-trick in the first game and DiCicco had another last night, to give the two forwards 5 goals and 2 assists and 4 goals and 3 assists respectively for the weekend. Some highlights for the dynamic duo included a couple of very pretty goals last night by DiCicco storming in down the left side and bursting up the middle splitting the defence. The big winger picked the corner on a couple of his goals including one where he looked like he'd gone too deep to the left of the net but somehow picked the short side top corner from a near-impossible angle. For his part, Worby was using his hockey smarts and his stickhandling to good effect and was also passing very well. He made, for example, a beautiful saucer pass across the front of the net to winger Cole Chick, who would have scored had it not been for an amazing save by North goaltender Matthew Hyde who went post to post a la Carey Price. This passing made Worby even more dangerous as the opposition had to respect his playmaking skills, which gave him a little more room out there and he used his deadly wrist shot to pot some key goals including the back-breaking fourth goal in the third period last night, after which North London seemed to lose heart. 

The second line of Callum Knapp, Matt Hodgins, and Nathan Senese did not have as big a weekend offensively, generating only one goal, but played extremely well in their own end and kept the pressure on the opposition teams' defence, wearing them down. Hodgins also had what may well have been the prettiest goal of the season as he charged up the left side and dipsy-doodled his way through West A6's defence before making a strong move to the backhand (I think it was... I coached 4 games on the weekend!). Even better: the goal was a timely one coming near the end of the second period and putting the Hawks up 3-1 going into the final frame. Knapp and Senese, typically for them, both had some key plays coming back on the backcheck. Knapp, for example, saved a certain goal in last night's game by lifting a North London player's stick to the right of the net who was just about to put a rebound in past a prone Read in net.

Read also had a big weekend. He looked composed in his net and was challenging shooters and going down into a textbook butterfly stance to take the bottom half of the net away from the opposition. He made also made one funnily unorthodox save last night on a blast from the point, which was headed for the top left corner of the net. Instead of using his blocker to deflect the puck wide of the net Read chose to make like a baseball shortstop and reach across with his glove to snag the puck. He then fired quickly to first to make the out.

It was a great weekend for the Hawks, which capped a good season highlighted by two tournament wins and some dominating efforts.

Some stats facts from the season.

Matt "the Hulk" Hodgins took home the Tiger Williams award, leading the team in penalty minutes with 16. He added to his team-leading total with a two minute minor for tripping on Sunday.

An impressive four players shared the Iron Man Award, as Jacob Grover, Matt Hodgins, Nathan Senese, and Owen Worby all appeared in all 32 of the Hawks' games.

Despite a late-season surge from Matt DiCicco, Worby swept the offensive categories for the Hawks, leading the team with 42 goals, 23 assists, and 65 points.

Noah Weber had a break-out year, scoring not only his first goal but adding two more to go with 11 assists for 14 points.

Weber wasn't the top offensive blueliner on the team, however. That honour went to Pyper Baker whose 5 goals and 21 assists were tops from the back end on the team.

Jacob Grover had the dubious distinction of being the only Hawk who didn't get a goal this season even though Coach Mike Worby - always attentive to the needs of his players - gave the big d-man a couple of shifts at forward at the end of last night's game to try to get him one. But Grover's value is not measured by his offence - rather his steady and gritty play on the back end was a key part of all the Hawks' success this season.

In net, goaltenders Read and Walsh both had good statistical seasons. They both won 9 games but Walsh had the better winning percentage with 9 wins, 5 losses, and a tie, while Read went 9-8. Read had the lower goals against average, however, with 2.06 vs. 2.46 for Walsh. The two goalies also combined for an impressive 5 shutouts. On the whole then, clearly the Hawks had good goaltending on most nights, no matter which of their goalies was between the pipes. And those impressive statistics should also be viewed as a result of the excellent team defence the Hawks played most of the time, with everyone making life easy on the masked men.

So while the season didn't have a fairytale championship ending this year, the Hawks can hit the summertime satisfied with their effort. Look for big things in 2018-9 from this group. 

Go Hawks go!