Black Hawks overtake Gardiner, 3-2

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up another win last week when they traveled to Kennebec Ice Arena in Hallowell to take on the Gardiner Tigers in a make-up game.
    The first period saw the Houlton-Hodgdon team start a little slow after the three plus hour bus ride and goalie Malik Abouleish had to make several top-notch saves in stopping all 11 shots he faced in the period to keep the game scoreless after one period of play.
The second period found Ben Ward with a great individual effort in the first shift of the period. He beat the Gardiner goalie high to the stick side giving the Black Hawks a 1-0 lead just 30 seconds into the period.
Gardiner came back to tie the score on a power-play goal just three minutes later. It seemed that the period would end in a tie, but Nick Chase finished a pretty passing play that involved his whole line to give the Black Hawks a 2-1 lead after two. Assists went to Ward and Cody Briggs.
The third period featured end-to-end action and it seemed that the Black Hawks might hang on to take the 2-1 win, but the Tiger’s tied the score at the 7:04 mark. This set up a hectic finish to regulation and time ran out with the score tied.
Overtime lasted all of two minutes when Ward scored his second goal of the game to give the Black Hawks the 3-2 victory and some much needed Heal Points. Ward was sent down the left side of the ice by Jared Tapley and beat a Tiger defenseman. Ward then slid the puck between the Gardiner netminder’s pads for the win.
“This game wasn’t one of our best as the bus ride seemed to throw the team off,” said Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey. “We didn’t connect on our passes like we usually do and there was very little body checking on our part. We also seemed a little off in both ends. The good part of that is we managed to beat a pretty good team when we weren’t playing our best. Hopefully we can intensify our focus and have a good end to the season.”
The next few weeks are very critical as the Black Hawks play eight games in the few weeks left in the season.
“The kids will have to buckle down and really be disciplined as we fight for a playoff spot,” said Trickey.
The Black Hawks play Brewer at the Millar Civic Center in Houlton at 1 p.m. on Saturday.