It wasn’t the result they had hoped for.
The Huntsville Hawks had their sights squarely set on a four point week but had to settle for two points after losing to Cornwall Saturday night 12-11 at the Jack Bionda arena. A night earlier they had come from behind for an impressive 9-7 victory in Whitby against the Warriors.
Huntsville is still in second place with 16 points after winning eight of their first 13 games. That’s just one more than Whitby and two ahead of Peterborough who have two games in hand.
Two of the Hawks remaining three regular season games are against the Peterborough Lakers. They play in Peterborough this Friday night and back in Huntsville June 25. In between they play in Barrie on June 24.
“It’s definitely tightening up,” said coach Joe O”Halloran, frustrated by the second period letdown by his team against Cornwall. “Our compete level wasn’t there being outscored 7-3 in the middle period. I know we played the night before, but that is the way it will be in the playoffs. It’s about being prepared and playing a full 60 minutes every night. It’s a real battle now. Really tight.”
Zach Hubbard was in goal for the win against Whitby while Mitch Wagner felt the pressure against Cornwall.
Huntsville and Whitby were tied 4-4 after the first period and Whitby led 6-5 going into the final twenty minutes. The Hawks came back scoring three unanswered goals late in the period, the last one with 37 seconds remaining, for the 9-7 decision.
Coach O’Halloran said key to the victory was the team’s defense, especially late in the game.
Luke Allen led the scoring for Huntsville with three goals, Chris McLaughlin had a pair including the game winner and the late insurance goal.
Saturday Chris McLaughlin, Jack Drinkwater, Josh Zantingh, and Luke Allen all had two goals, with singles going to Nate Zantingh, Nick Vangelder, and Tyler Conn.
Huntsville’s goal is to finish in second place which will give them home advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Two victories against Peterborough would go a long way to make that happen but coach O’Halloran says it all comes down to consistency. The team will work on that at practice this week and hope to be better prepared Friday night in Peterborough.
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