Black Hawks hard-working group

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks played two home games last week, dropping a 5-4 overtime heartbreaker to Hampden on President’s Day and falling to Old Town, 8-1, last Thursday.
The game against the Broncos of Hampden saw the Black Hawks leading or the score tied the entire game only to have Hampden send the match into overtime with five minutes remaining. The Broncos scored with just over five minutes left in overtime to take the match.
    The game against Hampden saw the Black Hawks take a 2-0 lead after one period, as Lucas Grant and defenseman Cole McLaughlin scored two minutes apart near the end of an exciting period. Eugene Ivey assisted on Grant’s goal.
The second period was end-to-end action with both goalies coming up with big saves. Hampden pulled to within one at the 4:14 mark. It looked like the one-goal margin would hold up as the Black Hawks had a power play to end the period, but a defensive lapse saw the Broncos tie the score on a short-handed goal with just 41 seconds left in the period.
The Black Hawks once again took the lead at the 8:40 mark of the period when Grant hit for his second goal of the game. The Bronco’s once again tied the score with 5:49 left in the game, but Houlton senior captain Sam Fitzpatrick took the next faceoff and scored unassisted just 10 seconds later.
“This seemed to be the boost we needed to take the contest,” said Houlton-Hodgdon coach Joel Trickey. “But, the Hampden squad was determined.”
The Broncos scored just 33 seconds later. This was the last of the scoring in regulation as Houlton Hodgdon goalie Payton Porter turned back several good Hampden scoring chances in the final 5:06 of the third period.
Overtime saw end-to-end action with both teams having chances to end the game. Unfortunately for the Black Hawks, they couldn’t clear a loose puck in a goalmouth scramble and the puck was poked into the net by a Hampden player at the 5:56 mark of overtime to end the game.
Porter had 25 saves and the Black Hawks put 27 shots on the Hampden netminder in this very even contest.
The game against Old Town saw the Black Hawks fall behind 2-0 after one period of play, but come back to pull within a goal when Brandon Malone scored a power-play goal with just two minutes gone in the second. The assists on the marker went to Sam Fitzpatrick and Alex Donovan.
This was as close as the Black Hawks could get as Old Town’s goalie shut the gates for the remainder of the game. Old Town added two more goals in the second and struck for three quick goals at the start of the third period to seal the Black Hawks’ fate. Goalies Chase Brewer and Hugh Farrar combined to make 32 saves and the Black Hawks put 25 shots on the Coyote netminders.
“The past two games were a study in contrasts, as we just couldn’t keep our intensity level up against Old Town and then we played a very fast and high energy game against Hampden,” said Trickey. “The kids have come a long way this season and hopefully will be rewarded with a win in their final game against Winslow. We’ve played very well in Sukee this year, winning all our games there so far.”
A win against Winslow tonight, the Black Hawks would have won every game there for the first time since 2006 and end the season on a very high note for the program.
“This has been one of the hardest working and most attentive group of student athletes we’ve had and this fact alone bodes well for the future of the Black Hawk program,” Trickey said.