Hawks Find Way to Win in Back to Back Victories, News, HL - Minor Bantam - 27, 2018-2019, CHL Bantam (West London Minor Hockey)

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Feb 06, 2019 | GeoffRead | 602 views
Hawks Find Way to Win in Back to Back Victories
The West London Hawks did not have their best game on Sunday night against West London #37, nor did they turn in their finest effort of the season in tonight's tilt against Oakridge Aeros #27. But what they did do in both games was find a way to win, and that's all that matters in the standings.

Goalie Zach Read, after a spate of games in which he played reasonably well but was giving up a weak goal in the late going, found his groove in these two matches and shut the door on both sets of opponents. Really, the play was pretty even in both contests but Read was the difference maker. He did this on Sunday despite battling the flu, which made his solid play all the more impressive. 

One play tonight against Oakridge showed Read's quality. The Hawks were up 2-1 with about 5 minutes to go. Oakridge was coming on a bit. A quick Oakridge player stripped a Hawks defender of the puck in the neutral zone and broke in from the left side on Read. As he cut across the net he launched a hard shot to the far side. Read, moving well laterally, stuck out his left leg and directed the puck harmlessly into the corner. The Hawks then turned around, Nathan Senese made a nice breakout play to Owen Worby, who rushed up ice and made a good move to get a nice chance to score. The Oakridge netminder, who had an excellent match, saved the first shot but #9 collected the rebound and fed it back to Worby who made no mistake on his second opportunity.

And with that, the Hawks essentially won the game. Read's fine save + a good breakout and some smart, skilled play by Worby and #9 was the difference.

On Sunday night, what was notable was that the big duo of Worby and #9 were relatively silent but Callum Knapp and Matt DiCicco supplied timely goals to help the team win. The Hawks iced five defencemen - Jacob Grover, Noah Weber, Jack Churney, Liam Stewart, and Matt Hodgins (Pyper Baker was absent) - and the group had a very good game on the whole. Up front, the team rolled two lines: Worby, #9, and Senese as well as Knapp between DiCicco and Brendan Walsh. This proved a good game plan as the two lines played well until the later stages of the game when fatigue set in and the Hawks gave their West London rivals several good chances to tie the game; fortunately, Read bailed out his fading teammates.

Tonight, the recipe for success was a little different. With Baker back the team moved a four defence rotation with Baker paired with Weber and Grover playing with Stewart. Meanwhile, up front, DiCicco supplied the first two goals by going to the net hard and collecting rebounds from nice plays by Cole Chick, back from a concussion, and popping them in the net. Worby and Knapp rotated at centre while #9 was paired on the wing with Nathan Senese, DiCicco played with Chick, and Churney moved up front to play with Hodgins. Hodgins didn't find the scoresheet but he did earn player of the game honours from Coach Liam Walsh for his hustle in this match as he made several nice plays defensively and generated several good chances to score with his energy on the rush and forecheck. Brendan Walsh missed the game with a snowboarding injury. Team officials pointed out that Walsh's contract clearly indicates he isn't to engage in other sporting activities during the season but decided to overlook his transgression.

Yet for all the positives, there were some negatives in both matches. The Hawks played unevenly in both as momentum swung back and forth. In the Oakridge game this nearly cost them not only on the breakaway that Read stopped but also off some blown coverage on a defensive zone draw, which allowed Oakridge's best player to walk in from the point and rip a hard shot off the post. So the Hawks need to remember to play the full 45 minutes, to work hard on their defensive zone coverage, and to make smart plays on the breakout to avoid turnovers.

Go Hawks go!