Mar 03, 2019 | GeoffRead | 624 views
Hawks Fight Nationals to 2-2 Draw
The West London Hawks Major Atom A4 squad faced a stern test Saturday afternoon, facing off against North London Nationals C4 and battling to a 2-2 tie. It was a tight-checking affair with solid defence and good goaltending at both ends of the rink and the result was probably a fair representation of the balance of play.
Kayden Keating had a great day in net for the Hawks, holding the fort through several periods of extended pressure. He also adroitly covered the puck to end several scrambles. Perhaps his finest moment came early in the third period when he made a nice save on a clean break for a Natioanls' forward to preserve what was then a 2-1 lead.
The game was a back and forth affair. The Hawks built a 2-0 lead early in the game as the line of Nathan Mason, Zoe Read, and Maria Pimentel counted two in short order. Both plays were textbook examples of the coaching staff's philosophies and teachings. On the first. Read picked up the puck in her own end on the boards. Recognizing that she had some space she took several strides with the puck before putting a tape to tape pass on the stick of Mason breaking up the middle. Taking the puck with speed, the crafty centre streaked through the neutral zone and then deked around a hapless Nationals defender before roofing a hard shot past the North London netminder.
Then off the ensuing faceoff, Mason won the draw to Pimentel who dumped it into the corner. The North defenceman got to the puck first and put it up the boards to a winger and it looked like North London would break out.
Not so fast.
The North Londoner tried to cut into the middle where Read was waiting for him. She stripped him of the puck and went in on the net on a partial break. She got a good shot off but the goalie made a nice save and the puck went behind the net.
Smelling blood, the Hawks swooped in for the kill. Pimentel and Read crashed and banged around the net with Read eventually working the puck to Pimentel at the side of the net. The determined right winger got a shot off but again the goalie made the save. The puck, however, squirted out of the scrum to Mason who took aim and put his shot in off the crossbar.
So it was a strong start. Unfortunately, however, the Hawks, despite playing hard, did not score again as the strong North London defensive corps did a nice job of stymieing the Hawks' attack.
There were some exceptions. Read, for example, had two more glorious chances she unfortunately didn't convert. One where she, like Mason, picked a puck out of a scrum. Unfortunately, she didn't elevate her shot like her centreman had and the goalie got a leg on it. And in the third period, Read, who might be the team's best player at takeaways, stole the puck near the Hawks' blueline and streaked in all alone on the opposition's net. She got a good shot off, raising this one a bit but again the goalie was up to the task. It was probably the Hawks' best opportunity to win the game.
The defensive foursome of player of the game Aiden Hayes with Gregory Nicolis and Brandon Miles with Andre Prato-Duran had a good game. In particular, with help from their forwards who were working hard on the backcheck and trying to be in position for the breakout etc., the four did a nice job of thwarting North's standout player - the hulking #15, a big centreman who can stickhandle and shoot like a Bantam player. They heeded the coaches' advice to 1) not look at the puck and keep their eyes focused on #15's chest to try to stop him; 2) recognize that he never passed, and so keyed on him, essentially group-checking him into submission. They also contributed to the offence by holding the puck in at the blueline many times creating extra chances for the forwards to score.
Hayes drew player of the game honours for his usual strong two-way effort and in particular, a game-saving play he made by being in position, covering the front of the net with the puck in Nicolis' corner. The Nationals centred the puck putting it off Keating's pad and the puck lay tantalizingly for the Nationals in front of a yawning net. With a winger bearing down on him and about 0.5 seconds away from scoring the go-ahead goal, Hayes clear the puck away with authority and saved a goal and probably the game.
The defence were also victimized by one of the stranger plays of the game as Hayes pinched at the blueline and the puck got by him. Smartly enough he tripped the Nationals' player who could have gone on a clean break. An unfortunate but common enough play. Except that the Natioanals' centreman picked the puck up in the neutral zone and rushed in on the lone defender back: Nicolis. As the National cut to his left in the high slot Nicolis reached out for the puck and inadvertently tripped up the North Londoner. When the whistle blew this led to the Hawks being assessed two penalties on the same play and put them down 5-3 for two minutes.
In the first minute of the double penalty kill Mason seized an opportunity and rushed up ice. He again went high and put his shot in the top corner. However, the referee, standing to the side of the net claimed the puck went off the crossbar as it shot back out immediately. But from the angle from the Hawks' bench it was as plain as day - the puck had gone in and out. The angle the puck came out at confirmed this.... so the Hawks were unfortuantely robbed of a goal. Naturally, enough, in the second minute of the penalty kill, the Nationals scored to make it 2-1.
James Nielsen's line with Owen Askew and usual defender Paul Steele generated a few chances to score. Askew and Nielsen both had good shots on net and Nielsen followed up his player of the game performance last weekend with another strong two-way effort, making a couple of key plays on the backcheck. Steele adjusted nicely as the game went along. In the first period in his own end he was playing essentially as a third defenceman but after the coaches talked to him about sticking to his own position to be there to get the puck out he did a much nicer job as the game went along.
Kaelan Walsh, Connor Devlin, and Troy Price had a strong game. Devlin did a super job on the breakout on one memorable play, making a play similar to Read's in the first period in the third when he sprung Price on a partial break up the middle. Price, for his part, was buzzing all over the ice and had several good chances to score. Unfortunately, there were at least two memorable plays where he should have slid a pass across the front of the net to his linemates and instead elected to shoot. The coaches, especially Coach Dwayne, continue to encourage Price to look for those passes.
So it was a good effort from the Hawks in a hard-fought game. Unfortunately, they didn't get the win as North London evened the score towards the end of the third period, but a tie was a pretty good indicator of the balance of play. These two teams are quite evenly matched and it will make for a good game when they meet again.
Go Hawks go!