Athabasca Midget 1 Hawks took a pair of losses in home games at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex arena against the Battle River Knights and Devon Drillers Jan. 12-13.
Hawks vs. Knights
The Jan. 12 home game against the Battle River Knights looked like a fortuitous victory heading into the third, with the Hawks up 3-1 over the Knights.
But the Knights got the puck in front of the net and capitalized on a total of six goals in the third to win the game 7-3.
Brady Bilsky stopped 60 of the 67 shots on net, and was commended by coach John Young.
"He's the most focused kid I've ever seen play in hockey," he said. "It's disappointing for him because he works, he puts in the time on and off the ice and to have it collapse like that, he's got no help, I'd be frustrated if I was him."
Young talked about increasing shots on net and how zone control were important.
"It was looking good for two periods," he said. "We were just trying to improve on breaking out of our zone and establish a bit of a cycle down low and little more zone time down there and we were doing that down there so that's what we are going to keep doing."
The first period ended with the Hawks leading 1-0 from a goal by Dalton Breckenridge and an assist by Donovan Stapley.
The Knights tied it up 1-1 in the middle of the second, but the Hawks struck back with a goal from Nayte Ramey, assisted by Shawn Strong, and then an unassisted goal by Evan Ladoucer to to make it 3-1 to close out the second.
Hawks Midget 1 had a goal-less third period and took six against to close the game against the Knights.
Hawks vs. Drillers
The Athabasca Hawks Midget 1 home game against the Devon Drillers was a much closer game score-wise than the Knights, with the Hawks being only one goal behind at the buzzer to take a loss of 5-4.
The game started with a rush as the Evan Ladoucer scored 37 seconds into the game.
The goal came materialized when Shawn Strong moved the puck to Nayte Ramey on the right side, who then did a cross-ice pass to hit Evan Ladoucer on the fly over the blue line before he blasted it top shelf for the first goal of the game.
The Drillers answered back with a goal of their own late in the first period, and then the Hawks' Shawn Strong scored, with assists by Ryley Biro and Carsen Runcer to close the first at 2-2.
Goals in the second period came from Riley Biro, assisted by Seth Ehman, but were answered back by the Drillers who netted two more, closing the period at 4-3 heading into the third.
A tie goal from the Hawks came half-way through the third period when Ramey moved the puck to Stapley who worked past two Devon Driller defenders to put the puck in the net and tie the game at 4-4.
The winning goal came late in the third period with 54 seconds left on the clock when the Drillers shovelled in a loose puck to take the lead.
With less than a minute left on the clock Nayte Ramey led a final rush along the right-side across the blue line and moved it into the corner before sending a centring pass to Hawks moving on net. The first Hawk saw the pass go by and the second Hawk chipped the puck over the net putting a whistle on the play, and effectively running the game to a final 5-4 loss to the Devon Drillers.
There was 42 per cent improvement in shots by the Hawks in this game, with a total of 31 shots against the Drillers, and only 18 against the Knights.
Brady Bilsky also saw an increase in save percentage, stopping 66 of 71 shots, giving him a 93 per cent save percentage.
