Nov 26, 2018 | GeoffRead | 250 views
Balanced Hawks' Attack Grinds Bandits Down
The West London Hawks Major Atom A4 continued their winning ways Sunday with their second win of the weekend. Key to the team's success was their balanced attack, as the coaching staff juggled the lines a bit and each of the team's three units contributed at least one goal.
The team defence also continued to be superb. The players have really bought in to the necessity of helping out in their own end and the forwards are hustling back and supporter the defence. The four defencemen in this match were Andre Prato-Duran, Aiden Hayes, Paul Steele, and Brandon Miles, and all four had solid games. Prato-Duran, Hayes, and Miles also had to play for the better part of a period without Steele who banged his head on the ice late in the first period and had to be thoroughly vetted for a concussion before he could go back on. His teammates on the back end definitely picked Steele up and played sublimely in his absence. In honour of the defence's great play, defender Aiden Hayes took home player of the game honours for his excellent work breaking up rushes and headmanning the puck out of danger with his trademark crisp breakout passes.
In net, Kayden Keating continued his solid play. He wasn't super busy in this one, but he made a few good saves and one spectacular one early in the third period. On that play, the Bandits' shooter came in on the left wing and Keating came out to challenge and made the original save. But the rebound popped out into the slot and another Bandit looked like he had a sure thing with an empty net gaping before him. Keating, however, made like Carey Price and lunged to his left to make a highlight reel save on the shot. It was a timely save as well, as at that point the Hawks were only up 3-1 and a goal would have swung momentum against the Hawks.
Up front, the attack was relentless. The Hawks' forechecking gave the Bandits fits. The newly formed trio of Nathan Mason between Zoe Read on his left and Maria Fernanda Pimentel on his right was particularly tenacious and caused turnover after turnover throughout the game. Mason opened the scoring early in the first period on a beautiful solo effort where he took a chip off the boards from Pimentel and danced through what seemed like the entire Bandits' lineup before scoring. The line also finished the scoring in the third period salting the victory away when Hayes corralled the puck at the point and slid the puck across to Miles who took a hard shot on net. Read, in her best imitation of Sidney Crosby, redirected the puck out of the air and the deflection fooled the Bandits' netminder.
Not to be outdone, the unit of James Nielsen centring left-winger Connor Devlin and Owen Askew ascored early in the second when all three broke up the right side. Devlin chipped the puck on the breakout to Nielsen (just like in practice!) and the centreman barged up the boards before crossing the blueline and shuffling the puck over to Askew who took three or four strides and then ripped a wrist shot on net that eluded the Bandits' goalie. The line also had several hard-working shifts where they kept the Bandits hemmed in their own end.
The third line for the night featured Kaelen Walsh at centre, Troy Price at left wing and usual defenceman Anderson Watt on right-wing. This group too had success including a nice goal by Price just 18 seconds after Askew's goal, on which both his linemates assisted. This was another hard-working effort and it was good to see all three players rewarded with a point on the play. Watt, in particular, was making a comeback after two games off due to injury and acquitted himself well playing out of his natural position on defence.
In short, it was a great game for the Hawks.
Go Hawks go!