Resilient Hawks win 5-4 in shootout thriller

Over 250 fans came out to support the Hawkesbury Hawks on Friday night, February 5 as they played host to a spirited Gloucester Rangers team at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex. See slide show of Hawks in action at end of this story.

The hometown Hawks fell victim to yet another slow start and found themselves trailing 2-0 after the first twenty minutes on goals by Gloucester's Mitchell Fournier and Dylan Anderson.

Hawkesbury head coach Martin Dagenais admits that his team "made some mental mistakes" in the opening period, but they came out in the second period with guns blazing. Justin Warren found the back of the net 6:07 into the second frame with assists going to Jeremy Melbye and Joey House. The Hawks would complete the second period comeback when Christopher McPeak scored his third goal of the season with less than two minutes remaining. Julien Quincou and Yanick Laliberté would draw assists on the tying goal.

The unyielding offence of the visiting Rangers would take over in the third period, reestablishing the two-goal lead before the midway point of the final frame. The resilient Hawks would cut into the two-goal deficit when McPeak beat both Gloucester defenseman and slid the puck past the outstretched Rangers goaltender on a remarkable breakaway goal, his second of the game. Assists on the goal went to Laliberté and Craig Myeroff.

With time running out, Dagenais decided to pull Hawks goaltender Philippe Magnan and replace him with an extra attacker. The last minute gamble would pay off when Hawks defenseman Eric David sent the hometown crowd into a frenzy, scoring with 46.5 seconds remaining in the game. Melbye and Myeroff drew assists on the goal.

The teams would take to the ice for a five-minute overtime period in which Magnan played a pivotal role stonewalling the Ranger offence and sending the game to shootouts.

Magnan would continue his impenetrable play in the shootout, stopping two out of three of Gloucester's shooters. After Quincou missed the Hawks first shootout attempt, Melbye found the back of the net, putting the Hawks ahead by one. Gloucester's Zach Lokey scored to even the shootout score, leaving the game in the hands of Hawkesbury's final shooter - McPeak - who made it look easy as he slid the puck past the Rangers goaltender, giving Hawkesbury a much-needed victory.

"We are extremely happy with the way that our team played tonight," said Dagenais when asked about his team's performance. "We made some mental mistakes early but we showed enough character to come back and win the game, which was nice to see."

The young Hawks played some of their most inspired hockey of the season against the second place Rangers. "It's not easy to motivate a team that knows that they will not make the playoffs," Dagenais said after the game. "We have so many young players that this becomes the start of next season's training camp. For the players that are here right now, it's up to them to take advantage of the ice time they're getting."