Golden Hawks split weekend action with two OT matches

October 3, 2013 · 0 Comments

Caledon Golden Hawks’ goalie Eric Pitcher drops to stop a shot from a Penetang Kings forward during the third period of Sunday’s Junior C game in Caledon East. The Hawks gave up a four-goal lead and lost 8-7 in overtime.
Photo by Brian Lockhart

By Brian Lockhart

The Caledon Junior C Golden Hawks had some success over the weekend, but they also learned a valuable lesson — never let up.
The Hawks travelled to Fergus Friday night and left with a 2-1 win after going into overtime and scoring early in the extra period.
Launching into the third period with a one goal deficit, the Hawks scored on a short-handed effort by Christian Bonaldi at the midway mark to make it a brand new game.
The teams returned for a five-minute overtime period and Caledon took the win on a goal from Patrick Savella on a power-play opportunity.
“We’ve just got to play a full 60 minutes and not take a period off,” said Hawk defenceman Cody Forgione. “That’s what hurts us.”
They got the two points and their third win of the season.
The return to home ice Sunday to face the Penetang Kings went sour when the Hawks allowed three unanswered Penetang goals in the second period.
The Hawks were leading 6-2 at the end of the first period — usually a recipe for a win.
But the Kings’ response in the second brought the visitors within a goal and the teams came back out for the final 20 minutes with Caledon leading 6-5.
After getting a two-goal lead early in the frame, the Hawks allowed two goals and the game was tied at seven.
It didn’t take long for things to be over. Penetang scored the winning goal after 21 seconds of overtime.
“I think after the first, we got a little too excited about scoring,” Forgione said. “We weren’t worried about defence as much. We went into the room and talked. We said, don’t be too excited, it’s still zero-zero. We have to keep the same mentality as before the game started. I think we just started blowing the zone a little too early and getting too excited about playing offence instead of worrying about playing defence.”
By the time clock ticked off to the last couple of minutes the squad figured that they would have to shut down Penetang and go into OT.
“We were trying to get it to overtime because they had the momentum after scoring that goal,” he said. “The coach was saying ‘stick to the systems, dump it in, chase, keep going and work down low.’ Hopefully we could score and get another two points.”
The system worked to kill the final couple of minutes, but in the overtime period, the Kings took advantage of the situation and the final goal was nicely executed with a pass from behind the net and a Penetang player getting a free shot which found the back of the net.
The final was 8-7 for the Kings.
The Hawks will travel to Stayner tonight (Thursday) to face the Siskins with an 8:30 p.m. start.
They will return to home ice at Caledon East arena Sunday to host the Orillia Terriers.
The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.