Black Hawks win preseason hockey tourney; first game Dec. 11

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks kicked off their 2010-11 season last weekend with a trip to Brewer to participate in the John Bapst Thanksgiving Tourney. With just three tryouts under their belts, the team had a chance to see how they stacked up against some of their Eastern Maine B competition as Presque Isle, Old Town, Brewer and John Bapst were on the tourney schedule.
The first game on Friday saw the Black Hawks taking on Old Town and coming away with a 3-1 victory. After a scoreless first period, Old Town took a 1-0 lead late in the second on a break-away goal. The Black Hawks entered the third period trailing, but quickly tied the score on a goal by Ben Ward, with an assist by Nick Chase. With less than five minutes left in the game, Ian Gervais put the Black Hawks in the lead, assisted by Dylan Gard. Logan Holmes added an empty net goal to seal the win.
    The second game on Friday saw the Black Hawks taking on the reigning state champion Brewer Witches. Brewer took a 1-0 lead with 4:50 gone in the first period, but Houlton-Hodgdon tied the score less than two minutes later on Ward’s second goal of the weekend. Assists on the goal went to linemates Cody Briggs and Chase. The Black Hawks fell behind late in the first and the 2-1 Brewer lead held up until late in the third period when Chase hit the twine on assists by Briggs and Ward.
“This was an exciting game as Brewer played their regular season lineup, giving the Black Hawks their best test of the weekend,” said Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey.
Malik Abouleish made several key saves in the final minutes to preserve the tie.
Saturday saw the Black Hawks starting the day against county rival Presque Isle. The Black Hawks took a 1-0 lead on freshman Lucas Grant’s goal at the six-minute mark. The Wildcats tied the game late in the first, but the Black Hawks struck back just 30 seconds later on Grant’s second goal of the game. Assists went to Gard and Gervais.
The second period saw the Black Hawks open the floodgates and pour in four more goals. Sam Fitzpatrick and Ward each tallied a brace, with assists going to Brandon Ward, Jimmy Fitzpatrick, Briggs and Chase. The third period saw the Black Hawks put up five more markers to make the final score 11-1. Grant picked up a hat trick with his third goal of the game, while Briggs, Gervais, Parker Sanderson and Eugene Ivey also found the net. Ben Ward picked up two assists, while Ivey, J. Fitzpatrick, Gard and Holmes also made the score sheet. Netminders Abouleish and Avery Kibler faced seven shots, while the Black Hawks put 42 shots on the harried Wildcat netminders.
The final regular game of the tourney saw the Black Hawks facing the host Crusaders. The final score was 5-0 Black Hawks with defenseman Kam Lincoln scoring what proved to be the winning goal at the 5:20 mark of the first period. Assists went to Ivey and Ben Ward. S. Fitzpatrick opened the second with a tally assisted by Sanderson. Ben Ward then scored three for the Black Hawks’ second hat trick of the weekend. Ivey and Grant picked up two assists apiece and Lincoln added one.
The championship game was played directly after the Black Hawks last game and featured a match against their County rival Wildcats once again.
“With fatigue a possible factor this game, this would give us a test of our determination to succeed this season,” said Trickey.
It only took one minute for the Black Hawks to take the lead as Holmes tallied the first of his two opening-period goals. Assists went to Gervais and J. Fitzpatrick. With 1:10 left in the period, Holmes gave the Black Hawks a 2-0 lead, with assists going to linemates Gard and Gervais.
Houlton-Hodgdon added two more in the second and three in the third period to take the tournament title on the strength of a 7-0 victory. Ben Ward, Grant, Chase, Sanderson and Briggs all tallied goals in the championship game with Ben Ward, Holmes, Ivey and Chase picking up assists. Abouleish made 16 saves to pick up the shutout and the Black Hawks put 26 shots on the Presque Isle net.
“While it was fun to come out of this tourney with the championship cup, it was much more important to get out and measure ourselves against other teams before the season starts,” Trickey explained. “With just three tryouts leading into the weekend, everyone got a good read on what we need to work on to make this a successful season.”
All of the Black Hawk players saw plenty of ice time and the younger skaters got a taste of what it will be like to play in the league.
“Overall it’s always a great experience to get this tourney under our belts,” Trickey said. “With just under two weeks until we open our season, there’s a lot of work to be done, but this is a hard-working focused group of kids and we should be ready to have a very good season this year.”
The Black Hawks’ first game is on Dec. 11, as they host Gardiner at the Millar Civic Center at 1 p.m.
“We hope to have a large crowd come to cheer on their Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks in the season opener,” Trickey added.