The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks went 1-2 over the last couple of weeks taking a shutout win over Orono and dropping a heartbreaker to Brewer on the road, while suffering a setback to their playoff plans when they lost to Lawrence 4-0 at Sukee.
The Brewer game saw the Black Hawks taking it to the Witches until standout junior Brandon Malone caught his skate in a crack in the ice fracturing his ankle and leading scorer Brandon Ward took a vicious illegal hit — according to Black Hawks coach Joel Trickey — at center ice causing him to suffer a concussion.
The first period of the Brewer game found Ward potting a goal just 45 seconds after the opening faceoff, assisted by Alex Donovan. Brewer countered at the 7:21 mark, but the Black Hawks scored on an end-to-end rush by Jimmy Fitzpatrick to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room.
The second period saw Brewer score two goals to Houlton-Hodgdon’s one, as Donovan scored for the Black Hawks, assisted by Ward and Lucas Grant. Then disaster struck for the Black Hawks as Malone was taken off the ice with a fractured ankle.
Ward scored early in the third period, assisted by Cam Clark and D J McGary. When Ward was hit it took a lot of the momentum away from the Black Hawks. Brewer scored at the 11:16 mark to tie and took the game on a power-play goal with just 2:22 left in the game.
On Jan. 31, the Black Hawks faced a must-win game against Orono playing without their two leading scorers and facing the league’s First Team all-star goaltender.
The first period was scoreless, but the Black Hawks broke through in the second when Donovan potted a goal as he buried a pass from Grant on the weak side of the net. The play was set up by McGary.
The Black Hawks took a 2-0 lead into the locker room as once again Fitzpatrick went end-to-end to bury the puck in the back of the Red Riots’ net unassisted.
In the third, Donovan netted his second of the game, assisted by Cole McLaughlin. Houlton-Hodgdon netminder Payton Porter faced 20 shots and turned them all back to record his second shutout of the year.
The Black Hawks traveled to Sukee Arena in Winslow to face the Lawrence Bulldogs in a battle for the last playoff spot on the Feb. 2. The Black Hawks fell 4-0 to the Bulldogs.
The Black Hawks never could get anything started in a very physical contest and ended up on the wrong side of the score, according to Trickey.
Porter faced 32 shots and the Black Hawks put 38 shots on the Bulldog goalie without any success. While the loss kept Houlton-Hodgdon from securing the last playoff spot, it did not take them out of the picture, as they have a chance to take the spot away from the Bulldogs with a solid-end of season performance.
“The game with Lawrence was very physical and the referee’s seemed to not call the original penalties just the second of two,” said Trickey. “We unfortunately took most of those second penalties and our momentum was stymied by that.
“Our game against Orono saw the team dig deep and find the little extra they needed to win a must win game,” he added. “People stepped up and played their best game of the year and we were very disciplined in our own end. The kids really proved their mettle in that game.”
And against Brewer, Trickey noted the game was very good until the Black Hawks lost two players.
“The kids were actually outplaying the Brewer team, but couldn’t overcome the loss of our top scorers,” he said. “In my opinion, the hit on Ward was solely to take him out of the game because he was frustrating the Brewer players with his outstanding play. I might not think that except the Brewer captain high-fived the other senior captain that caused the injury with a cross ice charge and hit to the head with his gloves as the offending player went to the penalty box. It seemed to me that they went a little too far to win a high school hockey game.”
