The Winchester Hawks travelled to the J. R. Brisson Complex on Sun., March 1, to take on the Casselman Vikings in game one of the best-of-three CCHL2 playoff series. The Hawks’ forward, Kyle Fleming tries to wrap the puck around the net on the Vikings’ goaltender, Nicholas Campbell. The Hawks offence sputtered in this game as the Vikings took game one 4-1. Moore photo
WINCHESTER—The Winchester Hawks played a pair of weekend games as they welcomed the Char-Lan Rebels on Friday night for their final regular season game and travelled to Casselman on Sunday night for game one of the best-of-three wildcard playoffs.
Hawks 6 Rebels 2
The Winchester Hawks welcomed the Char-Lan Rebels to the Joel Steele Community Centre on Fri., Feb. 28, in the CCHL2. The Hawks went into the game in fifth place in the Martin Division with this game being their last of the regular season. The Hawks’ future was already decided as they would face the fourth place Casselman Vikings in a wildcard best three-out-of-three playoff series to see who will face the first place Ottawa West Golden Knights.
The Hawks opened the scoring when Marco Haw pounded home his 16th goal of the season from Kyle Kuehni at 5:55. The Hawks took a two-goal lead when Nathan Lassemba ripped home his third of the season from Kuehni and Steven Meadus at 11:48. The Hawks took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Hawks made it 3-0 when Fleming scored his 23rd of the season unassisted just 1:10 into the second period. Kuehni gave the Hawks a 4-0 lead at 17:45 from Logan Schmidt and Haw, and with just 12 seconds remaining in the middle frame, Graeme Buffone ripped home, his first of the season from Nolan Guertin and Noah Fraser on the power play.
The Hawks took a 5-0 lead into the second intermission. The Rebels scored a pair of goals at 10:21 and 14:51 of the third period to cut the deficit to three. The Hawks closed out the scoring at 15:11 when Haw scored his second of the game and 17th of the season from Kuehni and Danny Johnson.
The Hawks took the game 6-2 completing their regular season with 24 wins, 14 losses, five overtime losses and one shootout loss – good enough for 54 points over 44 games. The Hawks outshot the Rebels 58-47.
Picking up the win in the Hawks’ goal was Lucas Devries making 45 saves.
Up next
The Winchester Hawks welcome the Casselman Vikings to the Joel Steele Community Centre in Winchester on Wed., March 4, for game two of the CCHL2 wildcard playoff series at 7:45 p.m. and if necessary, travel to the J. R. Brisson Complex in Casselman on Thurs., March 5, for game three at 7:30 p.m.
