Jan 13, 2019 | GeoffRead | 230 views
Hawks Give Game Away
For whatever reason the West London Hawks Minor Bantam #27 save their worst hockey for North London Nationals #17 and that proved to be the case again Friday night. The Hawks suffered through countless errors of commission and omission on their way to a convincing 5-2 loss that reflected the balance of play.
The worst part of the loss was that the Hawks started the game well, dominating the first period with some good forechecking and getting a nice goal by Owen Worby assisted by #9 and Brendan Walsh to see them finish the period tied at 1. When Worby scored again just over a minute into the second on a nice play by Jack Churney it looked like the Hawks were on their way.
Unfortunately, it all fell apart rather convincingly. There were a series of baffling mistakes made by the Hawks that cost them the game. Indeed, in a preview of sorts, on the first period goal the Nationals' forward was allowed to make a wrap around play and then get two whacks at his own rebound to jam the puck past goalie Zach Read.
The other Nationals' goals came off the following plays (not necessarily in order): on one two Hawks had the puck high in their own slot. The puck was mishandled and both peeled away in the same direction allowing the Nationals' defender to step in, fire a smart pass to an open winger beside the net who put the puck past a prone Read. On another goal, the last defender coming out of the zone inexplicably tried to stickhandle past a National who stripped him of the puck and went in all alone and scored. On another, the puck went into the corner and the Hawk defenceman didn't even try to beat his man to the puck. Instead, the National not only got there first but had time to turn around and make a pass onto the tape of the winger out front of the net. That winger was covered in theory by another Hawk but somehow got a clean shot off and then got the rebound and scored. The fifth goal was a weak shot from a sharp angle along the boards that Read somehow missed.
So it was a sad effort as a group. There were a handful of Hawks who played well, including player of the game Callum Knapp who played with passion and like he doesn't like to lose. Worby had a good two-way game as well and Matt Hodgins worked hard throughout the match. But otherwise, the effort was pretty uneven and there were 2-3 players who were notable passengers in the game.
Hopefully, the Hawks learned their lesson for tonight's contest.
Go Hawks go!