The Nipawin Hawks jumped on the Yorkton Terriers early and never looked back as they cruised to a 5-0 win over the Terriers in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League action in Nipawin on Oct. 13.
The Hawks opened the scoring just 4:34 into the first period as Brandan Arnold scored his fourth of the year, and added two more as Michael Grant scored his eighth, and Arnold added his second of the night to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead after the first period.
Jumping out to such a large lead early was nice, admitted Doug Johnson, the head coach.
“It’s always important. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a team that’s struggling or a team that’s having a lot of success. The quicker you can jump on somebody the better it is.”
Johnson noted playing against a team that has been struggling, like the Terriers have is especially important as they usually will not fight back, unless you give them the opportunity to do so.
The Hawks did not give the Terriers any chance to fight back in the second as they added two more goals, off the sticks of Keillan Olson and Josh McDougall, to take a 5-0 lead into the third period.
The third period ended scoreless as the Hawks rolled to an easy 5-0 win.
Despite failing to score in the final period, Johnson noted he felt it was his team’s best, particularly defensively.
“We didn’t score but we really limited opportunities, didn’t give up a whole lot and I thought that’s what we really needed to work on for the future. I’m just very happy with the effort all around.”
Declan Hobbs picked up the win and his first shutout of the season in the Hawks goal, turning aside all 17 shots he faced, as the Hawks outshot the Terriers 40-17.
With the Hawks firing so many shots at the Terriers goal, Johnson noted getting pucks on goal is also something they focus on but noted he felt on this night the number of shots was a direct result of them carrying the play.
“The puck was on our tape a lot more than it was off it and when you have the puck as much as we did you tend to put a lot of shots on net.”
The Hawks next action comes on Oct. 17 when they take on the Terriers again in a rematch, this time in Yorkton.
Heading into the contest, Johnson admitted there is always the concern of the team resting on its laurels after such a dominant win, but says he will make sure they are aware of it, and that they know the repercussions if things go sideways.
“The locker room has a lot of pride, they have a lot of self confidence and pride not only in their ability but pride in the jersey, pride in each other and they don’t want to let their teammates down.”
