Nov 28, 2011 | Mark Kraus | 365 views
Hawks Have Moderate Success at Blue Line
This past weekend the Bantam Hawks played in their first "regular" season tournament of the year; the Kitchener Blue Line tournament. After some recent improved play the coaching staff was cautiously optimistic that the team could have some success.
And they were not disappointed as the team continued their fine play through the round robin portion of the tournament. In fact the Hawks finished first overall by winning their first three games of the tournament against the Brantford 99ers (5-1), Ottawa Senators (3-1), and Niagara Falls North Stars (6-1), before finally falling 3-2 to the Brampton Battalion in the fourth.
This set the stage for the first semi final of the tournament featuring Cambridge and the Ottawa Valley Titans. The Titans used their speed very well in this one as witnessed by the fact they managed 3 shorthanded goals against the Hawks. But despite trailing throughout the game the Hawks never gave up. Down 5-2 with approx. 4 minutes to play the Hawks were awarded a 2 man advantage. After pulling the goalie in favour of an extra attacker the Hawks were playing 6 on 3 and scored quickly. Now 5-3 and still on a power play the bench was poised for a comeback. However Joey Laird of Ottawa completed his Hat trick with one of the three shorthanded goals for the Titans.
Overall the team played quite well and should be proud of the effort and entertainment they provided.
Leading Scorers for the tournament were Austin Sine ( 3g-5a), Alex Ritchie (5g-1a), Nathan Bastian (4g-2a) and Mitch Montgomery (0g-5a). Levi Walker, Alex Takacs, Jake Wilkinson and Paul Morra all had 4 points..
Owen Savory (1 and 1-- 2.00 gaa ) and Hayden Padalino (2 and 1-- 2.67 gaa ) played well between the pipes