Black Hawks take tough losses over holiday

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks dropped their two matches over the Christmas holiday, as they fell to Winslow 3-1 at the Millar Civic Center on Dec. 22, and traveled to the Alfond in Orono only to fall in overtime to Old Town 4-3.
    The Black Hawks are 2-3 at this early point in the season.
The Black Raiders of Winslow came to Houlton and showed why they are once again one of the top teams in the state regardless of class. They played a very disciplined game and strong skating to take a 2-0 lead after the first period.
The second period found the Black Hawks pick up their game to match the visiting Raiders. Both teams potted a goal in the period as the Raiders took a 3-0 lead only to have Taylor Martin step in from the blue line and fire a high shot past the Winslow goalie to make the score 3-1. Assists on the goal went to Logan Holmes and Chris McGuire.
The score seemed to lift the Houlton-Hodgdon club and they seemed to have taken the momentum away from the Raiders. This was as close as the Black Hawks could get as they took a couple of ill-advised penalties at the end of the second and never regained their momentum.
The third period saw both teams lacking intensity and the flow of the game turned choppy. The period ended with neither team able to find the net and the Black Raiders came away with a 3-1 win.
Black Hawk net minder Malik Abouleish stopped 36 of 39 shots and the locals fired 30 shots at the Winslow net minder.
In Orono last Saturday, the Black Hawks took on the Old Town Coyotes. The first period was all Houlton-Hodgdon as the local club outshot the Coyotes 10-4 and took a 1-0 lead into the locker room on a C. McGuire goal. Assists went to Holmes and Craig Buxton.
The second period saw the Black Hawks take a 2-0 lead on a Martin goal assisted by Morgan Hall at the 4:09 mark of the period. The Black Hawks seemed to stop their hard work at that point and the Coyotes took advantage to score two goals of their own in just one minute of play. The period ended in a 2-2 tie setting up an exciting third period.
In the third the Black Hawks had control of the play for the most part out shooting the hosts 9-4, but the Coyotes took the lead with just under four minutes left in the game. Things looked bad for the Houlton-Hodgdon team but with just under a minute left Lowell Matthews took a centering pass and fired it into the net to tie the game at 3-all. Assist on the play went to Ashir Abouleish and Jake Peabody.
In overtime, the Black Hawks came within inches of breaking Hall loose off the opening face off, but Old Town fired the puck back to the Black Hawk end. The Black Hawk clearing pass bounced off a Coyote shin pad and into the Houlton-Hodgdon end where it was picked up by an Old Town player who walked in alone on Black Hawk goalie Levi Ledger and fired a high shot into the net for the Old Town win. Ledger finished with 16 saves on the evening.
“While we dropped both of our games over the Christmas week, we think we might have learned some valuable lessons from the experiences,” said Black Hawks Coach Joel Trickey. “In both games the team played with the other team and could have won. In the Winslow game, we had taken the momentum from one of the best teams in the state and took a coupler of dumb penalties to take ourselves out of the game. The Old Town games saw us learning as different lesson. We had control of that game and relaxed a little in the second period. The Coyotes took advantage of that and we never completely regained control of the game. While the losses are somewhat hard to take, we hope to learn from them and become a stronger team from them. Everyone — from myself to the new players — are always is trying to learn from our mistakes as well as our accomplishments.”