Hawks pick up a much needed point in OT loss

The Winchester Hawks travelled to the Perth Arena on Fri., Oct. 11, to take on the Blue Wings in the CCHL2. The Hawks’ defenseman, Ryan Nielsen (17) has been a stalwart on the blue line this season but also contributes offensively scoring two goals and five assists in seven games. Nielsen scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period but the Blue Wings battled back to take the game in overtime. Moore photo

PERTH—The Winchester Hawks played just a single game this past weekend as they travelled to Perth on Friday night to take on the Blue Wings.

Blue Wings 4 Hawks 3 (OT)

The Winchester Hawks travelled to the Perth Arena on Fri., Oct. 11, to take on the Blue Wings in the CCHL2. The Hawks went into the game in fourth place in the Martin Division one point behind the Ottawa Jr. Canadians and two points behind the Casselman Vikings in second place. 

The Blue Wings sat in fourth place in the Richardson division and are the defending Barkley Cup champions. 

The Hawks opened the scoring when Kyle Green scored his third goal of the season from Kyle Fleming at the four-minute mark of the first period taking a 1-0 lead. The Hawks made it 2-0 when Marco Haw lit the lamp for the fifth time this season from Kyle Kuenhi and Jacob Giacobbi with 2:14 remaining in the opening frame. The Blue Wings got to within one with just 24 seconds remaining but trailed 2-1 heading into the first intermission. 

The Blue Wings scored the lone goal of the second period at 17:37 despite being outshot by the Hawks 13-12 in the second period. The teams took a two-all draw into the second intermission. 

The Hawks retook the lead when Ryan Nielsen scored his second of the season from Eric Vitale at 9:09 of the third period. The Blue Wings knotted the affair at 13:13. Neither team was able to claim the victory before the clock wound down in regulation, so the game headed to a five-minute three-on-three overtime period. The Blue Wings ended the game at 3:17 of the overtime period taking it 4-3. 

With the single point, the Hawks moved to within one point of the Casselman Vikings but fell to two points back of the Canadians after they beat the Vikings. The Blue Wings outshot the Hawks 5-37. Suffering the loss in the Hawks’ goal was Lucas Devries making 46 saves.

Up next

The Winchester Hawks welcome the Casselman Vikings to the Joel Steele Community Centre on Fri., Oct. 18, at 8:15 p.m. and travel to the Cobden Arena on Sat., Oct. 19, to take on the Whitewater Kings at 7:30 p.m.