Atom A Hawks loss to Burlington still provides some positives

December 5, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart
The Caledon Hawks Atom A team may not be on the plus side for this season, but they are still working on some goals and achieving success for what they have set out to do.
Their 3-1 loss to Burlington over the weekend may have given them another ‘L’ in the standings, but considering they were up against a top team, their defence did what they were supposed to do.
“I’m proud of those guys,” said coach Craig White after Saturday’s game against Burlington. “They’re (Burlington) a second ranked team in Ontario. Their coach always comes to me after a game and says ‘you guys always give us a hell of a game.’ He’s impressed with how we play.”
The Hawks’ bench knows the team’s limitations, so they have been focusing on the skills where the squad has displayed a stronger capability; namely defence and stopping the other team from scoring.
“We lack a lot of offensive talent, but they take a lot of pride in trying to keep the other team’s shots down and not give up any good quality scoring chances. They did a good job today.”
While the Hawks only managed to score a single in this game, they had a solid performance keeping the Burlington team out of their end and driving them into the corners.
At the end of the final period, they gave the “sticks up” salute to the fans.
“We’re realistic,” White said. “We don’t have a lot of offensive talent, so we’ve got to play hard defensively. They all buy into it. They all try hard every shift, as hard as they can. That’s why their sticks were up at the end of the game — to show their parents they gave it their best shot.”
The squad is also coming off a tournament win in Lincoln, where they won the final against a favoured squad; something White called “the highlight of the year.”

The Caledon Hawks Atom A team battled it out against the squad from Burlington during minor hockey action at Caledon East. The Hawks produced a solid effort on the ice despite coming up short and taking a 3-1 loss to the visitors.
Photos by Brian Lockhart