Hawks minor midgets A go ahead in first round

January 16, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart
The Caledon Hawks minor midget A team have cleared the first playoff hurdle with a 5-4 win over the Oakville Blades in their first playoff game of the season Sunday.
The game was tied three times before the Hawks notched number five in the third period and held on to take the win.
After a regular season that landed the Hawks in the number five spot in the league, the squad was up against a team who finished in fourth place, and this was the first time this season the Hawks have won over the Oakville squad.
“It’s all work ethic,” said Hawk coach Tim Sinclair of what the team accomplished. “We’re not built on a whole lot of skill, it’s all work for us. Lately for us, it’s been more skating right through the entire game. A lot of times we take the third period off, so these guys actually worked all the way through.”
The team was back on the ice the same night for practice to get ready for the next game; again against the Oakville Blue team.
The playdowns will see the Hawks play Oakville again before going on to play another team in the round-robin style first round.
Sinclair said the bench now takes a good look at the line-up and decides what changes should be made before the next game.
“We’ve got some work to do a far as line changes and things like that go,” he said. “We mix it up through the playoffs. We find the guys work a bit differently — when they don’t know who their playing with, they work a little harder.”
Sinclair said the team improved steadily as the season went on.
“They’ve improved all year,” he declared. “The biggest thing is the work ethic. When we first started off, there was a lot of guys that thought they could do it based on talent alone. Over the last month or so, it’s been a lot more team work and team activity. They’ve all come around and are working really well.”
The Hawks will take a break during the playoffs as they have been invited to participate in an international Silver Stick tournament in Newmarket in January.

The Caledon Hawks minor midget A team played the Oakville Blades during the first round of OHMA playoffs Sunday. It was a tough battle, but the Hawks came out on top to take a 5-4 win in the first game.
Photo by Brian Lockhart