Jan 13, 2019 | GeoffRead | 471 views
Hawks Exact Revenge in 5-3 Win
The West London Hawks Atom A4 exacted a little revenge Sunday night. The last time they played North London Nationals A4 they were embarrassed on the ice as the Nationals romped to a 5-1 win. Motivated by that humiliation, the Hawks poured the pressure on the Nationals tonight, a strategy that led to a determined 5-3 victory.
Player of the game Troy Price led the way right from the first shift as he was flying around the ice causing turnovers and creating chances to score. Indeed, at the tail end of the first shift, Nathan Mason made a nice pass to Price who buried it in the back of the net to put the Hawks up 1-0. The Hawks continued to outwork the Nationals in the first but suffered a bit of a breakdown defensively, which allowed the Nationals to escape the period tied 1-1.
But the Hawks were not discouraged, and continued to put the heat on the Nationals' defence with a strong forecheck and attacking game. The defensive group also had an outstanding night cutting off rushes and holding the puck in at the blueline. Anderson Watt had one of his strongest games of the season and was skating very well. Gregory Nicolis was moving the puck up the boards with authority and has learned to look first so that he is picking his spots to get the puck out. Brandon Miles and Aiden Hayes skated well too and got a few shots on net. Paul Steele fought hard for the puck and broke up a dangerous looking rush in the third.
This hard-working effort from the blueline corps bought the forwards the time they needed and midway through the second a Price rush led to a beautiful shot from Mason, which found twine. And before the period was out, Price made the play of the game negating an icing with his hustle, beating a Nationals' defenceman out of the corner, and making a nice pass to a trailing Owen Askew who dipsy-doodled around another defender and then put it home short side.
Thus the Hawks entered the third period up 3-1. But to their credit, the Nationals did not go quietly into the night, instead they raged, raged against the dying of the light. Their efforts led to them twice pulling within a goal as #11 scored two similar goals taking the puck wide on the Hawks' D and roofing nice, hard shots top corner on goaltender Kayden Keating.
But while the Hawks bent, they did not break. James Nielsen took a feed from Price, danced into the slot and weaved his way through three Nationals before putting a hard low shot in off the left post. Nielsen's highlight-reel marker put the Hawks up 4-2 before #11 closed the gap to make it 4-3.
The atmosphere in the arena was tense as there were 8 minutes left to play. But the Hawks' determination was evident. Maria Fernanda Pimentel showed this when she came back hard on a rush to cut #11 off and prevent a scoring chance in front of the net. Connor Devlin showed it when he kept digging at the blue line to get the puck out. Miles showed it by not retaliating when he took a pretty obvious slash from #11 and didn't retaliate allowing the Hawks to run another two minutes off the clock. Kaelen Walsh and Zoe Read showed it when they outworked and outhustled the Nationals on the penalty kill hemming them in their end and getting several shots on net. Keating showed it by slamming the door on the late chances the Nationals generated. And Mason showed it with his heads up play in the dying seconds of the game when he twice gained the red line before shooting; he was rewarded on the second attempt with the fifth goal - a nice empty netter to go along with his other goal and assist.
It was a great team effort. Every single player contributed. Well done Hawks!
Go Hawks go!