The Nipawin Hawks’ penalty had one of their toughest outings of the season as they gave up three goals on four chances in a 4-0 loss to the Flin Flon Bombers.
“We made mistakes that we hadn’t made in a while,” noted Doug Johnson, the Hawks’ head coach, about the March 8 away game. “Things didn’t go our way. Flin Flon moved the puck well but we made some mistakes.”
One of the biggest differences in the game was the loss of Grant Baetsen, noted Johnson.
“He’s been one of our best penalty killers all year.”
The Hawks came out flat right from the start giving up a power play goal just 2:25 into the game and trailed 2-0 after the first period.
The Bombers added another goal in the second and one more in the third en route to the 4-0 win.
It was an especially difficult time for such a poor performance for the Hawks as they needed just a single point to claim second place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings, but instead let Flin Flon climb over them, thanks to their better head-to-head record, after both teams finished tied with 83 points.
“Unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way we wanted in Flin Flon but we looked back briefly, figured out what went wrong and tried to move on,” said Johnson, who noted there is not much sense in being disappointed now because that game is in the past and they have to focus on the future.
Offense was another struggle for the Hawks.
“You look at the shots obviously that was a concern... we did hit a post. We did have chances but it wasn’t our best effort offensively. We didn’t do a few of the things we talked about and we move on and learn from it,” noted Johnson.
The Hawks also had a goal wiped away by the referee after an early whistle.
The loss sends the Hawks into the four-five playoff matchup, where they will have home ice advantage against the Humboldt Broncos.
