Mar 19, 2017 | Jen Fletcher | 496 views
It Ain't Over!
The Hawks played their second game of their series against Brantford on Saturday afternoon at Wayne Gretzky Arena. Down by two points, the Hawks knew that if they lost their season was over.
Back to their full roster, the Hawks came out strong in the first period. They were skating harder, forechecking well and giving it their all. In the first period Quintin Douglas dove to prevent a clearing attempt in Brantford's zone and then he was able to get the puck over to Lucas Sousa. The first period ended scoreless.
In the second period both teams continued their strong play. During a line change for the Hawks, Brantford tried to take advantage with a 2 on 1 play, but Parker Campbell was able to break it up to prevent a shot on net. With the Hawks down a man, Brantford was able to get on the board. The 99ers took a shot and it bounced off a player's skate in front of the net. Goalie Blake Fletcher was in perfect position for the shot, and was unable to get over quick enough to stop the bad deflection. Other than the unlucky goal, Fletcher made some key stops throughout the entire game.
Down 1-0 at the start of the third, the Hawks knew they had to get more shots on net and beat this goalie. With 4:02 left on the clock the Hawks did just that by crashing the net. The Hawks were controlling the puck deep in the Brantford zone, using all players. Justin Vandervelde, Ryland MacPherson and Ben McGowan were controlling down low, while Parker Campbell and Tyler Caswell were keeping the puck in at the blue line and getting it back deep. They got the puck out front and Ben McGowan put it in. With the game tied and the Hawks with a man in the penalty box for the last four minutes of play, the Hawks kept up some strong defensively play as well. Matthew Klassen was doing a good job clearing the puck, while his linemate Michael McIntyre had a strong first game back. Big Mac was seeing the ice well and taking his time with the puck to make tape to tape passes. With just 41 second left, the Hawks almost took the lead with a great shot from Liam Lapierre during the penalty kill. The Brantford goalie appeared to have luck on his side this game.
The Hawks were headed to a five minute sudden overtime. Lucas Sousa almost ended the game quickly as he was fed the pass and took off on the breakaway. Sousa was able to get a shot off asBrantford came back to pressure hard, but it nicked the post.
The game ended tied and the Hawks are now down 3-1 in the series, with the first team to 4 moving on to face Waterloo Black in the finals. The Hawks will look to win on home ice on Monday at 6:30pm at Duncan MacIntosh Arena.
GO HAWKS GO!!
Firefighter helmets this game went to Blake Fletcher and Justin Vandervelde.