Black Hawks overtake tough opponents

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up two more wins last week, as they traveled to Orono to take on the Red Riots on Jan. 4th and hosted the Class A Bangor Rams  last Saturday.
The game at Orono saw Houlton-Hodgdon come out of the gate slow and as a result they fell behind 1-0 after the first period.
“We seemed slightly out of sync as our passes bounced off sticks and often went wide of their marks,” said Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey.
    The second period saw a change in the Black Hawks’ attitude and play, as they struck for three goals, while holding the Red Riots to just two shots. Cody Briggs tied the contest with just 28 seconds gone in the period, with assists going to Parker Sanderson and Logan Holmes. Kam Lincoln blasted an unassisted shot by the Orono goaltender for what proved to be the game-winner at the 5:36 mark. Lincoln picked off an Orono clearing pass and drove the puck home. Sam Fitzpatrick picked up a loose puck in a goalmouth scramble and gave the Black Hawks a 3-1 lead at the 9:35 mark, with assists going to Jordan Russell and Sanderson.
The third period saw the Black Hawks keep the pressure on as Orono managed just one shot against a strong Houlton-Hodgdon defensive effort. Defenseman Jordan Brown picked up an insurance marker on the power play, assisted by his defensive partner Jimmy Fitzpatrick, to give the Houlton-Hodgdon squad their 4-1 margin of victory. Black Hawks goalie Malik Abouleish stopped eight shots for the win, while the Black Hawks put 30 shots on the Red Riot netminders.
“The Orono game may have woke us up a little as we were very sluggish in the first period,” said Trickey. “After the team realized that they couldn’t afford to take even a period off against anybody in this league, they performed much better. When this team is skating and hitting like they are capable of doing, they are very hard to play against. Orono only managed three shots after the boys decided to play at their level.
“This eye-opener proved to come just in time as we came out strong against Bangor,” he added.
Last Saturday, the Black Hawks hosted Bangor at the Millar Civic Center in what Trickey said was “their toughest test” of the season so far.
A hard fought and somewhat rough first period looked dead even, but the Black Hawks scored two goals in the last five minutes to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Holmes netted the first, with the assist going to Briggs and Dylan Gard put Houlton-Hodgdon ahead by two just 23 seconds later, picking up a loose puck and driving it home. Sanderson assisted on the Gard goal.
“While everyone was a little nervous at the start, we still managed to skate hard and once we settled into the game the team played very well,” Trickey said.
The Rams proved to be tough opponents, as they came back in the first four minutes of the second to tie the game. The Black Hawks went ahead once more on a goal by Briggs, assisted by Lincoln. After a scuttle, Lincoln faced a four-minute penalty making it a 5-3 Bangor advantage.
“We did a masterful job of defending our goal for the duration of the penalties,” Trickey said. When the Rams managed a shot Abouleish came up with the saves.
The third period saw an inspired Black Hawk team come out on fire and they took the lead just 2:11 into the period on an unassisted goal by Ian Gervais. Twenty-nine seconds later, Sanderson made a nifty move on the Bangor goalie, driving a hard-wristed shot home giving the Black Hawks a two-goal lead, as assists went to Gard and Briggs.
The Rams pulled back to within one, but Ben Ward regained the two-goal lead, assisted by his brother, defenseman Brandon Ward. A wild final six minutes, according to Trickey, saw both teams giving their best effort and skating very strongly. But, the Rams couldn’t put the effort together to tie the game and the Black Hawks came out with a very important 6-4 victory.
“This game was much rougher than many of our previous games as Class A hockey tends to be that way,” explained Trickey. “It certainly was a good test of our character and abilities and hopefully will help us grow as a team.”
Abouleish had a stellar game stopping 27 shots with many quality saves. The Black Hawks outshot their Class A opponent with 37 shots on goal.
In the next few weeks, the Black Hawks are coming into the “meat” of the season.
“The game against the Rams gave us a good idea of what they need to do to perform against the top teams in the state,” Trickey said.