Black Hawks get win

The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up their first win of the season last Saturday, pulling away from the Winslow Black Raiders in the third period for an 11-3 victory. They also traveled to Bangor to take on John Bapst, dropping that contest by a 5-1 score.
The game against Winslow saw the Black Hawks breaking open a close game in the third with seven unanswered goals. The first period saw the Black Hawks fall behind early as Winslow scored with just under two minutes gone in the game. However, the Black Hawks tied the score just a minute and a half later as Brandon Ward struck for the equalizer assisted by linemates Sam Fitzpatrick and Brandon Malone.
    The second period again saw the Black Hawks fall behind in the first two minutes, but this time it took only 16 seconds for them to tie the score as Malone tallied the goal, assisted by defenseman Josh Bragan.     The Black Hawks took the lead with just under three minutes left in the period, as Sam Fitzpatrick scored with the assist going to Ward. With just 2:31 into the period, defenseman Jimmy Fitzpatrick scored what proved to be the game winner, assisted by cousin Sam and Ward, giving the Black Hawks a 4-3 lead.
The third period saw the Black Hawks turn up their intensity and overpower the Black Raiders with seven goals. Ten seconds into the period, Ward scored the first of his four goals, assisted by the Fitzpatrick cousins. Sam Fitzpatrick scored 18 seconds later, assisted by Malone and Jimmy Fitzpatrick. Ward then scored three goals, all assisted by Sam Fitzpatrick. Alex Donovan and Lucas Grant finished off the scoring, as Donovan was assisted by Rachel Harmon and Ethan Nickerson; and Grant was set up by D.J. McGary.     Black Hawk netminder Payton Porter stopped 18 of 21 shots. The Black Hawks put 43 shots on the Winslow goaltender.
The game against John Bapst saw the Black Hawks, according to coach Joel Trickey, “play very well for most of the game” and take a 1-0 lead into the locker room after one period on a shorthanded goal by captain Sam Fitzpatrick.
Bapst came out strong in the second and scored four of their five goals to take a 4-1 lead into the third. The Houlton Hodgdon squad regained their composure and played a strong third period matching the Crusaders shot-for-shot. Bapst tacked on their last goal with just 15 seconds left in the game.
Porter faced 26 shots and the Black Hawks put 20 shots on the Bapst netminders in a very even contest.
“These last two games have shown the results of the players’ hard work as they played a team we lost 8-0 to just a short time ago and played them almost evenly,” said Trickey. “Once again, we had a second period letdown that cost us, but we shook it off much earlier then in previous games and played very well.
“We seemed to have a major breakthrough in the Winslow game as the team avoided having that lapse in concentration and also took command of the game in the third period, totally outplaying their opponents,” he said. “Hopefully this will carry over into the game Thursday in Orono and we’ll pick up our second win of the year. All the hard work in practice is starting to show and we’re very happy with the teams work ethic and constant improvement.”