Greely drops Black Hawks for a loss

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks dropped their first game of the season last Friday when they took a 9-1 drubbing at the hands of Western Maine point leaders, the Greely Rangers.
The Black Hawks sandwiched that game between two more wins, as they took a 6-3 decision over John Bapst last Tuesday and downed Lawrence last Saturday, 4-2, a day after the Greely game.
    The Bapst game saw an even first period with back-and-forth action until the Black Hawks struck for two goals late in the period. Dylan Gard hit for the first, assisted by Parker Sanderson, with just over five minutes left and Ian Gervais made it 2-0, assisted by Gard. Malik Abouleish made four saves in the period.
The second period saw the Crusaders tie the contest, but Ben Ward gave the Black Hawks the lead again with his marker with 2:20 left on an assist by Cody Briggs. The third period started with Sanderson giving the Black Hawks a 4-2 lead, assisted by linemates Gervais and Gard. Bapst pulled within one, 4-3, but Gard answered just 1:11 later, assisted by Sanderson and Brandon Ward. Sanderson picked up his third assist of the game, as Gard sealed the victory with his hat trick goal with 2:07 left in the game. Gard picked up five points to lead the Black Hawks and linemates Sanderson and Gervais picked up four and three points apiece.
“Our game against Bapst was a tough one as the Crusaders played us tough both games this season,” said Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey. “We seemed to gain momentum in the third to take the win, but waiting until that late in the game to turn things on can be very dangerous. The ability to come out with that energy has plagued us in a lot of games this year. It’s something we are concerned about going into the home stretch of the season.”
The Black Hawks took to the road last weekend as they traveled to Falmouth for a match with the Greely Rangers. The game opened with Houlton-Hodgdon setting a fast pace tempo and taking the play to the hosts. However, Greely took a 1-0 lead with 3:06 gone in the game. The Rangers scored three more times in the first as the Black Hawks seemed to be slightly out of sync after their initial burst. The Rangers outshot the Black Hawks 14-4 in the period.
The Black Hawks made some critical defensive adjustments to start the second period and the defensive zone breakdowns that plagued them in the first were not a problem. However, the hosts scored three more, as they managed several odd-man rushes that resulted in good scoring chances.
The Black Hawks played much better outshooting the Rangers 14-9, but only managed one goal as they had trouble solving the Ranger’s goaltender. Ben Ward scored on assists going to his brother Brandon and Logan Holmes.
The Rangers added two more in the third to take the 9-1 victory, but only outshot the Black Hawks by a 29-24 margin.
“Against Greely, it seems that everyone turned in their worst performance of the year,” Trickey said. “We started out well, but it seemed the Rangers could do nothing wrong and their coach confirmed that as he said, ‘They played their best game of the year.’ Combine that with us playing our worst and you have the drubbing we took. Everyone involved with the Black Hawks realize that sometimes that happens and we have learned from the experience.”
On Saturday, Houlton-Hodgdon played their second game in less than 14 hours as they traveled to Sukee Arena to take on Lawrence. The Bulldogs sit in third place in Eastern Maine B and looked to be a tough opponent with such a short turnaround between games.
The first period saw end-to-end action with the Black Hawks outshooting the Bulldogs by a 7-6 margin. The extra shot was all the Black Hawks needed to take a 1-0 lead into the locker room. Holmes netted the goal, assisted by Ben Ward.
The second period saw Lawrence come out hard and tie the game with only 2:25 gone. They added a second goal late in the period to make the score 2-1 after two periods. Houlton-Hodgdon was outshot by a 13-7 margin in the period.
With a second straight loss staring them in the face, the Black Hawks showed they have plenty of character and grit as they tied the contest with only 1:38 gone in the third period. Sanderson netted an unassisted goal and it seemed to spark the team. Holmes gave Houlton-Hodgdon the lead at the 7:42 mark and Sanderson sealed the win with 1:45 left in the game, assisted by defenseman Kam Lincoln. The Black Hawks outshot the Bulldogs 28-21 to take the match.
“We were worried about fatigue in our Lawrence game, but the kids dug deep to take the win,” said Trickey. “All credit for that win goes to the desire of the team to give a little extra to get results. While losing our first of the year was a disappointment, we’re very pleased with out 10-1 record at this point of the season.”
The Black Hawks will take that record into their showdown with Brewer on Saturday, giving them confidence that they can give the fans a good showing in the 1 p.m. contest.
“Hopefully, we will get the bounces and put in the hard work we need to take the game,” said Trickey.