The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks opened their season at home Saturday, taking a hard-fought 5-2 loss to John Bapst at the Millar Civic Center.
The Black Hawks are under a new head coach and a new system, which will take time to develop. But, coach Tony Marino is optimistic that everything will come together as the season progresses.
“Overall, I was very pleased with our first regular season game,” he said. “We played strong in both the first and second periods, but just ran out of steam in the third.”
The Crusaders took a 2-0 lead to start the game before freshman Josh Malone picked up his own rebound on a missed shot, which was set up by brother Brandon Malone, and banged it back in with about two minutes left in the first period.
In the second period, the Black Hawks’ captain, Gage Hunt slapped the puck from the point to tie the game at 2-all. The tie was brief, as the Crusaders netted a late goal to take back the one-point lead, 3-2.
“We were only down by one going into the third,” said Marino. “We definitely could have won that game.”
John Bapst would score two more goals in the final period to take the win away from Houlton-Hodgdon, who drew more penalties than necessary.
“Until the third, we only had two penalties in the game,” explained Marino. “But, they got tired and started playing a little frustrated and drew some unnecessary penalties. That definitely hurt us. It’s difficult to get anything rolling offensively when we’re spending a lot time killing off penalties.”
The Black Hawks had 36 shots on goal, while the Crusaders put 42 on Houlton-Hodgdon goalie Chase Brewer.
“They were not a better team than us,” Marino said. “They just played strong through all three periods. That just goes back to one of my goals for this season — to get the team in top physical condition so that we can finish a game just as strongly as we start.”
The Black Hawks next game will be tonight at The Forum against Presque Isle at 5 p.m. On Friday, the Black Hawks will play Hampden Academy on the road at 7:40 p.m.
