Friday night your Charleswood Hawks dropped a heart breaker to the Trancona Railer Express, 3-2 in double overtime. The Railer Express came out flying in this one early in the first with numerous big hits that seemed to come to an end when Cody Plett took a minor for slashing 3 minutes into the first. The Hawks failed to convert with the man advantage and again later in the first when Will Grouette was given a 5 minute major along with a game ejection for a dirty cross check on an unsuspecting Austin Hesselbart right in front of the Transcona bench. Five minutes into the second Ryan Sinclair scored for Transcona on a wild swing at the puck after a rebound from a Kelby Picard shot from the high slot. The Hawks managed to kill off their own 5 minute major when Taylor Opperman was tagged for a slashing major that came with a game ejection during a skirmish near the midway point of the second. The home team finally got rolling shortly after killing the major when Reg Bowles tipped in a Shea Gorenstein point shot to tie the game at one a piece. The third brought some good, clean hockey and the Railer Express took the lead early into the final frame on a diving tip in by Scott Morrison that managed to squeak by Ryan Hall. Your Hawks fought back and had numerous opportunities before finally netting the equalizer with a little over 6 minutes left in the third on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play started by Reg Bowles, who fed it cross ice to J.P. Lovell, who dished it over to Spencer Ferbers for the finish (check it out below!). On the chewed up ice of the first overtime no one managed to score in a period that saw the Hawks push the play with a number of opportunities. This one would go onto end on a sour note just over 6 minutes into the second overtime when Trevor Szyda accidentally tripped on one of the 2 broken sticks in the home team’s end of the rink that caused him to turn the puck over to Transcona’s Devon Matsumoto. Mastumoto fed it over to Chase Fincaryk who took it to the net and fired a shot that ping ponged over to a wide open Jordan Weir who potted the winner.
These two foes are back on the ice for Game 2 this coming Sunday afternoon with a 3:30pm puck drop…in the other MMJHL semi-final the Raiders took down the Stonewall Jets handily by a margin of 6-1…a big thanks goes out to Martin and Idan who attend J.B. Mitchell School for leading the Hawks onto the ice on Friday night as their honrouary flag bearers…again Game 2 is on Sunday at 3:30pm over at Ed Golding Arena in Transcona…be there or be square!
