Golden Hawks drop two weekend decisions to Erin Shamrocks

January 10, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart
The luck o’ the Shamrocks seemed to be a charm for Erin over the weekend as they delivered back-to-back losses to the Caledon Jr. C Golden Hawks.
The first game in Erin Saturday ended in a 6-3 final. Sunday’s game was in Caledon East and Erin won 5-4.
After taking a 2-1 lead in the first period Saturday on a short-handed goal by Nicholas McNutt and a second from Steven Klomp, the Hawks found themselves in trouble in the second frame when two powerplay goals gave the Shamrocks a 3-2 lead going into the third period.
Time in the box cost the Hawks the game when Erin notched three more goals in the third period, including two powerplay goals that gave them a three-goal lead midway in the frame.
Caledon’s Patrick Savella notched a single in the third period, but a final Shamrock goal gave the Erin squad a 6-3 win.
“We didn’t hit, we just let them play their game,” said McNutt. “We went the box a bunch — the same story.”
The return to Caledon Sunday was a lesson in frustration after the Hawks went down 2-0 in the first period on two powerplay goals, but returned to score twice by the end of the frame to make it a tie game.
Caledon goals came from Daniel Cafagna and McNutt.
The Hawks went ahead midway in the second on a goal from Chris Smith, but Erin responded with a goal at the 14:24 mark to tie it up again.
McNutt got the sweet goal of the game when the Erin goalie went to the corner to retrieve the puck and made a bad shot with McNutt hovering around him. He got the puck and beat the goalie scrambling to get back to the net.
“He just shot it off the boards and I picked it up and shot to the empty net,” he explained.
It was again the third period that had the Hawks in trouble.
The Shamrocks tied the game just two minutes into the third, then went ahead on a single just 15 seconds later.
The Hawks battled back, but again found trouble when they got called on some major infractions.
“Again, they had two powerplay goals tonight, and a couple of long shots that went in,” McNutt said. “They were tough ones, but if we had stayed out of the box that’s two goals that were taken away. If we backchecked and played better around our net, there’s a goal or two taken away. It’s defensive hockey that we need to improve on.”
After the weekend, the Hawks are maintaining their fourth place spot in the Georgian Mid Ontario Hockey League with 41 points.
The Golden Hawks have six games left on the schedule for the regular season, with the next one being a road trip up to Alliston tomorrow (Friday).
They will return to home ice at Caledon East for their regular Sunday night game Jan. 12, when the will host the Huntsville Otters.
Game time is 7 p.m.

Caledon Golden Hawk goalie Chris Vellucci stops a wrap-around shot by Erin Shamrocks’ Josh Sguigna during the third period of Sunday’s game in Caledon East. The Hawks gave up two third-period goals that cost them the game as they lost 5-4.
Photo by Brian Lockhart