Black Hawks hope to slip into playoffs

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks dropped two games to Orono and Messalonskee over the last two weeks before battling to a 2-2 tie against Lawrence at the Millar Civic Center on Saturday.
The game against Lawrence saw the two teams battle through three periods before going into an eight-minute overtime.
    The first period ended in a scoreless tie as Houlton-Hodgdon’s Payton Porter and Lawrence’s Kyle McLain each stopped 10 shots in the period as the action was end-to-end.
The second period saw the Black Hawks let up a bit resulting in two Bulldogs goals early in the period. Brandon Ward pulled the Black Hawks to within one at the 8:55 mark, assisted by Sam Fitzpatrick. The Bulldogs countered to take a 3-1 lead into the locker room after two periods.
The Black Hawks regained their composure between periods and Ward struck again to pull the Black Hawks within one with just 28 seconds gone in the period. With their defense tightened considerably, the Black Hawks held Lawrence to just four shots on goal in the period after giving up 25 in the first two periods. Alex Donovan tied the game at the 8:06 mark and while the Black Hawks had several more good scoring chances in the period, regulation ended in a 3-3 tie.
“The teams battled hard in the overtime, but no one could break the tie,” said Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey.
With time running out Sam Fitzpatrick broke in alone and was tripped up as the horn sounded to end the game. According to Trickey, Fitzpatrick was awarded a rare penalty shot, but his bid to slip the puck between the Bulldog netminder’s pads was stopped and the Black Hawks settled for the tie.
The Orono game saw the Black Hawks come out flat after their bus ride to the Alfond and they fell behind by two after one period, giving up a goal with just 16 seconds left in the period.
The second period was much more even, but the Black Hawks couldn’t break through the Red Riots defense. In the third, the game remained even, but Orono hit for one more goal for a 3-0 win.
Against Messalonskee, the Black Hawks “faced one of the top teams in the state regardless of class,” Trickey said. “This game was fast paced,” Trickey noted, with the talented Eagles taking a 2-0 lead into the locker room after one.
While the Black Hawks played with the Eagles, they couldn’t match the experience Messalonskee brought to the ice. In the second, the Eagles struck for four more goals, but the overall play was fairly even, according to Trickey.
The third period saw the Black Hawks tally their only goal, as Ward hit for an unassisted marker to counter the Eagles’ only goal of the period. Porter faced 39 shots in the Black Hawk net and the Black Hawks put 21 shots on the Messalonskee keepers.
“The past three games showed the inconsistency we’ve been battling all season with this young squad,” said Trickey. “Against Messalonskee, the kids came out fired up and kept the pace up the entire game. Even though they fell behind a talented team, they never let down their effort.
“The game against Orono was the total opposite, as we never did get our legs going and let Orono dictate the play even though the two teams were even talent-wise,” added Trickey. “In the Lawrence game, both ends of the spectrum came into play as the kids skated at Lawrence’s pace for two periods and finally ramped it up to our pace in the third and dominated play, outshooting our opponents, 12-4, in the period.”
Trickey is hoping for more consistency.
“Hopefully the team will begin to give us a 45-minute effort at their pace for the rest of the season and we can slip into the playoffs,” he said. “Almost all of our remaining games are very winnable contests. The rest of the season will be a good test of our kids’ character, determination and, of course growth, as both individuals and a team.”
The Black Hawks next game is Saturday at Hampden and Tuesday, Jan. 24, they will be home to Orono.