The Nipawin Hawks wrapped up their Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Showcase with a whacky 7-3 win over the Kindersley Klippers at the Hamm Latrace Arena in Saskatoon.
The Sept. 27 contest featured ten goals, with eight of them on special teams, including two Hawks power play goals, three Hawks short-handed goals, and three Klippers power play goals.
The first period saw the teams trade a pair of goals as Zach Cox and Brett Harasymuk found the back of the net for the Hawks, with Cox’s goal coming short-handed, and Harasymuk’s coming at even strength.
The Hawks took over in the second period as Michael Grant and Chad McCartney both scored short-handed to give the Hawks a 4-2 lead.
The Klippers responded in the third to cut the lead back to one, but power play goals by McCartney and Grant, and an even strength goal from Bryson Cecconi gave the Hawks the comfortable win.
Merek Pipes picked up his first career SJHL win in his first start turning aside 21 of the 24 shots he faced as the Hawks outshot the Klippers 37-24.
Despite giving up three power play goals in the contest, Doug Johnson, the team’s head coach, was pleased with how they played, noting that some of the goals were a result of bad breaks.
“Sometimes there’s things happening that it’s not necessarily a system break down… we thought we defended very well so you take that away. Our penalty kill was very good.”
The Hawks also added three short-handed goals, which Johnson said was thanks in large part of putting a lot of pressure on the Klippers power play.
“Early in the year sometimes you catch teams unaware of how hard you come and I think we did that. Our forwards did a great job and the more pressure we put on them the better it was for us.”
Aside from special teams, Johnson was pleased with the Hawks’ play, noting they battled hard, put pressure on the Klippers defense, cycled the puck well and created a lot of offense.
