On Saturday night the Hawks faced the Waterloo Wolves Black in front of a large hometown crowd. Down Silva and Quarrie, the Hawks looked to some other players to step-up and looked at call-ups Nico Fernandes and Tristan Nagle to help lead the charge. With players missing, Coach Marie moved other players around and switched the lines up.
Just 30 seconds in the game, the Hawks once again found themselves playing catch-up. The Wolves dominated the first period, but Blake Fletcher played strong and kept them from gaining more of a lead. Ben McGowan also helped in that department when he pulled the puck from behind Blake Fletcher before it crossed the goal-line! The line of Fernandes, MacPherson and Vandervelde had some great passes in the first period, but couldn't create scoring chances. Fernandes played centre well, even blocking a shot, and used his speed throughout the entire game. With just 22 second left on the clock Liam Lapierre, a regular defenceman who was moved to forward for the game, grabbed the puck in the Hawks zone and went end to end with a breakaway goal to tie the game up.
The Hawks seemed to match the Wolves in the second period. Parker Campbell made a great defensive play to stop a 3 on 1 rush by Waterloo. Neither team got a goal until there was just 12 seconds left in the period. Quintin Douglas took the puck into the Wolves' zone and fired a shot, missing the net. Nevin Noble followed the shot and appeared out of no where and made a great goal. Tristan Nagle had a strong second period, using his size to clear the crease and his hard shot to fire the puck up the boards.
Up 2-1 in the third, the Wolves struck first. Less than 30 seconds later, the Hawks would again take the lead with a goal from Justin Vandervelde when the Hawks all crashed the net. the third period saw the Hawks in some penalty trouble, spending half of the period in the box. However, while on the penalty kill Camden Schaefer controlled the puck deep in the Wolves zone and was able to put the Hawks up 4-2. The Hawks looked in better form in the third. Nathan Lahey made a great pas through centre for Lucas Sousa, but the Wolves goalie made the save. Another great play came when Matthew Klassen made the cross-ice pass at centre to Michael McIntyre who fed it over to Noble at the blue line. Tyler Caswell also had a great rush in the third, weaving through players to get the puck out of the zone before making the pass to McGowan. Unfortunately, with the score 4-2 the Wolves were able to capitalize two more times in the third - once on a power play and once at full-strength - ending the game in a 4-4 tie.
Fire Fighter Helmet Recipient for Defence - Michael McIntyre
Fire Fighter Helmet Recipient for Forwards - Justin Vandervelde