On a wintery Sunday afternoon the Hawks took the ice versus
the Woodstock Warriors in the Dave Cartwright Cup semi-final – a rematch
between two teams who met in the first game of the Carleton Christmas holiday
tournament; where the Hawks barely pulled out a 5-4 victory after some last
minute heroics. Prior to the game, however, things looked bleak with Justin
Chronkite suddenly coming down with the stomach flu, and Captain Will Shaw
showing signs of the respiratory virus that had earlier made its way through
much of the rest of the Hawks team. In a very touching moment, Justin came to
Coach MacPhee just before the game, as white as a ghost and barley able to
talk, and said “I am not going to let this team down”!
With no small measure of trepidation, given the state of
affairs for two of the team’s key contributors, the Hawks coaching staff
entered the game unsure of how the team would fare. With Will Shaw clearly
struggling (and needing to miss a few shifts in the 1st period to
allow his puffer to take effect), the team stepped up their efforts.
Thankfully, Luke McLellan took some of that pressure off early, opening the
scoring for the Hawks with 6:54 to play in the 1st. Luke was in his office in
the right corner of the Warrior’s zone when Will Shaw poked the puck free to
him through a couple of defenders. Luke grabbed the puck, walked out in front
of the net and slid a neat backhand shot past the Warrior netminder!
A little over a minute and a half later, Jonathyn
Oland-Simon extended the lead to 2-0 on a nice rush that was setup by Denver
Pike. Jonythan fired a rocket from the right faceoff dot that was too much for
Warrior goaltender Kathryn Chisholm. The initial save was made, but the
momentum of the shot carried it over top of Kathryn, and right across the goal
line!
Woodstock, however, was not going to go quietly, and Drake
Rogers finally solved the Hawks defense for the first time in the entire
tournament with 2:04 remaining in the 1st period (nearly 10 periods
of shutout hockey!). 2-1 Hawks at the end of one.
The Hawks were undaunted, coming out hard in the 2nd
period with Keaton MacPhee drilling home a nifty shot from the right side of
the ice past the Warrior goaltender Kathryn Chisholm at 9:04 (assist from Trent
Haines).
Keaton would add a second goal, in nearly identical fashion,
just under 5-minutes later. Once again though, Woodstock was not ready to pack
it in, and narrowed the score to 4-2 only 11-seconds later on a goal from
Dakota McKee. At the end of two, it was Hawks 4, Warriors 2.
The Hawks huddled around their bench before the start of the
3rd period, with the coaching staff urging the players to continue
to play hard, and take care of the defensive zone…only 12-minutes to go for a
chance to play for our home banner! With 6:50 left to play in the game, Will
Shaw, who had battled like a trooper the entire game despite being well under
100%, all but sealed the victory by tucking in his own rebound past a sprawling
Kathryn Chisholm.
At the five minute mark, the Hawks would extend their lead
to an insurmountable 6-2 when Keaton MacPhee, driving to the net with Duncan
Christie going wide left for a rocket shot on the Woodstock net, was right
there to bang Duncan’s rebound into the open cage for his hat trick!
Woodstock’s Andrew Watson would add one final tally in the
game with 3:30 to play, making the final score 6-3, and earning the Hawks that
much anticipated shot at the finals!
MVP went to Keaton MacPhee for his offensive outburst, and
outstanding hustle back checking throughout the semi-final; while the hard hat
went to Will Shaw for his resolve and commitment to gut out this game. The way
he and Justin battled through adversity, and stepped up for their team when
they needed them most, was a thing of sheer beauty to behold from a coaching
perspective, and serves to emblemize the true character this special group of
players has brought to the table this year! Video highlights available here. Downloadable McGuigan Media photos of game also available here.
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