Chasing perfection: Black Hawks still undefeated

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up two more wins last week, as they took an 8-0 decision over Hampden Academy on Dec. 28 and followed that with a hard fought 6-2 victory over the Winslow on New Year’s Eve.
    The game against Hampden saw the teams battle to a scoreless tie after one period of play despite a 12-1 shot advantage for the Black Hawks. The second period started much the same, but with 4:44 gone in the period, Dylan Gard opened the floodgates, with assists going to Nick Chase and Jordan Brown. The Black Hawks hit for three more in the second, as Gard set up Logan Holmes two minutes later and Chase tallied a brace with Ian Gervais, Ben Ward and Cody Briggs picking up assists.
The Broncos actually outshot the Black Hawks in the frame 9-8, but Houlton-Hodgdon took advantage of their chances to take the 4-0 lead into the locker room.
In the third period, the Black Hawks doubled their production as Ward, Holmes and Briggs tallied. Ward and Holmes picked up two assists apiece and Brandon Ward also garnered one. Chase then capped a banner game with his third goal to pick up a hat trick. Assists on that goal went to Gard and Brown.
Goaltender Malik Abouleish stopped all 12 shots he faced to pick up the Black Hawks first shutout of the season.
In a New Year’s Eve matinee against Winslow the Black Hawks looked like they might be thinking about next year at the start of the game, as the Black Raiders took an early 2-1 lead with goals 2:42 apart in the middle of the period. Ben Ward potted a marker in the middle of the Winslow rush, with the assist going to Holmes, as he sent Ward in alone with a nice outlet pass. The Black Hawks were outshot 11-7 as they went to the locker room trailing for the first time this season.
The Black Hawks seemed to wake up between periods as they quickly evened the match with a goal by Gervais with just 42 seconds gone in the second. The assist went to Briggs. Ben Ward netted his second of the game to give the Black Hawks the lead and Gervais hit for his second to give Houlton Hodgdon a 4-2 lead after two. Brandon Ward picked up the assist on Gervais’ goal. Houlton-Hodgdon also outshot Winslow 19-4 in the period.
The third saw the action much the same. The Black Hawks put 14 shots on the Black Raiders netminders and held Winslow to four shots again. Defenseman Kam Lincoln fired a blistering shot from the point into the net and Holmes finished the scoring, assisted by Briggs and Ben Ward.
Abouleish ended the day with 17 saves and the Black Hawks put 40 shots on the Black Raiders goalie.
“The team has performed well over our first six games as we have outscored our opponents 39-6 and scored several short-handed goals,” said Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey. “The entire team has played tough defense and really has back-checked well. We have had some lapses that so far haven’t cost us, but the meat of our schedule is coming up.”
The Black Hawks will play against Bangor next Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Millar Civic Center and they have an overnight trip to play Western Maine power Greely and a tough Lawrence squad the weekend after the Bangor game. The Black Hawks’ first match against Brewer will be coming up shortly.
“In these games we can’t afford to come out of the gate slow or forget to be physical, as we sometimes have during the first part of the season,” Trickey said. “The team has picked up their play whenever they’ve needed to so far this year and we expect them to rise to the occasion against these tough teams.”