Black Hawks are competitive

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up a pair of wins last week with a 1-0 victory against Orono at the Alfond on Dec. 27, and a 4-3 win over southern Maine power York at the Millar Civic Center on Dec. 23, giving the team a record of 2-3-1, as they dropped a pair of games to Gardiner and Winslow by 5-3 ands 4-3 scores.     The game with York was a hard fought contest with the Black Hawks weathering early York pressure and gradually taking charge in the first period. With 9:16 left in the period Ashir Abouleish potted the first goal, with the assists going to Craig Buxton and Jake Peabody. The Black Hawks struck for two more goals in the first, as they carried the play most of the period. Elliot Mooers hit for the second goal at the 4:07 mark. He was set up by Lowell Matthews and Taylor Martin. York took a tripping penalty with 16 seconds left in the period and with the face off in the York end, the Black Hawks took the draw and with two crisp passes scored just six seconds later as defenseman Avery McGuire fired a slap shot over the York goaltender to give his team a 3-0 lead. Assists on the play went to Logan Holmes and Kam Lincoln.
The second period saw end-to-end action with neither team able to find the net. Houlton-Hodgdon took a penalty with 1:17 left in the period and goaltender Malik Abouleish came up with the save of the game on the York power play. The puck ended up on a York stick on the weak side and it looked like a sure goal, but Abouleish slid across the crease and blocked the shot to keep the visitors scoreless after two.
The third saw the Black Hawks take a 4-0 lead when Morgan Hall took a rebound and calmly slid it past the York goalie. The assist on the play went to Ian Gervais.
York then showed why they are perennial powers in the west, as the young visitors turned up the heat on the Black Hawks. With 5:46 left in the period, they cut the lead to 4-1 on an unassisted goal by David Filial. Figlioli struck again just a minute and a half later to make it a 4-2 game. The Black Hawks fended off the York pressure until the 46-second mark when Figlioli set up Dylan Merritt to cut the lead to 4-3. That was the end of the scoring as the Black Hawks held on fro the 4-3 victory.
Both goaltenders saw 24 shots and Abouleish ended up with 21 saves, including several grade A chances.
The game in Orono Saturday saw the Black Hawks playing a tight defensive game. The action was end-to-end, but neither team could muster many good scoring chances. In the second period Mooers brought the puck out from behind the goal line and slipped it past the Orono net minder to give the Black Hawks a 1-0 lead. The assist on the play went to Ashir Abouleish. That proved to be the game winner as Malik Abouleish turned away all 15 shots he faced for his first shut out of the season and the Black Hawks first victory.
The contests against Winslow and Gardiner saw the Black Hawks come very close to picking up wins, but falling just short in both contests.
Against Gardiner on Dec. 20, the Black Hawks took a 1-0 lead in the first on a marker by Martin, with the assists going to Cody Briggs and Matthews. Gardiner took a 3-1 lead in the second, but the Black Hawks fought back and tied the score on two goals by Buxton. The assists went to Briggs, Martin and Holmes.
The third period saw Gardiner hit for two goals to take the game 5-3. Houlton-Hodgdon goalie Abouleish saw 30 shots in the game and had 25 saves. The Black Hawks put 27 shots on the Gardiner goal in this evenly played contest.
The Winslow game was a heartbreaker as the Black Raiders hit for the game winner with just 19 seconds left in the game. The Black Hawks had two good chances in the last 19 seconds as they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but couldn’t score the tying goal.
Houlton-Hodgdon goals came off the sticks of Buxton and Briggs, with Briggs picking up two goals. Assists went to Buxton, Martin and Holmes.
“In the last two games, we have had a better all around effort from the team,” said coach Joel Trickey. “Over our first four contests, we have had trouble keeping our focus the entire 45 minutes and that has cost us.”
The Orono game saw the team find that ability to play hard the entire game, with the Black Hawks earning the win.
“That wouldn’t have happened without total commitment by everyone on the ice,” Trickey said. “Our other problem over the first few games was taking penalties, and in Orono we only had three. That always makes it easier to impose your style of play on the other team. We did a very good job of that against York until the end of the game. The York players were frustrated and started to get chippy on the ice. Our kids did not respond well to that and we found ourselves having to kill off penalties once again. Hopefully, the team learned from that and we will continue to build on the last to games.
“The league this year is so even that things like keeping your temper under control and playing hard every second you are on the ice will make the difference between being a top team or missing the playoffs,” Trickey added.