Your Charleswood Hawks knocked off the Transcona Railer Express by a margin of 3-1 on Tuesday night to take a 2-1 series lead in the best of 7 MMJHL semi-final. Playing their 3rd game against each other in 5 nights proved to provide a rather chippy affair that was loaded with extra curricular activity after the whistles all night long. With what is becoming a pattern, the Hawks started slow with the Express dictating the pace of play through most of the first. As such the Express struck first courtesy of a missed Hawks shot on goal that rung around the boards and squeaked past the Hawks defender at the blueline that was picked up by Devon Matsumoto who netted the shorthanded goal. In a scary moment towards the end of the first, the Hawks Austin Hesselbart took a shot off his throat while blocking a point shot, but was able to continue to finish the game. The Hawks came out roaring in the second, first with a powerplay marker when Spencer Ferbers banged home a rebound off a Shane Kustra-Nelson shot. Then roughly 5 minutes later when Reg Bowles hit a streaking Meyer Nell who made no mistake with it going high blocker on Connor Shaw at the end of a penalty kill to put the Hawks up by 1. In yet another fantastic outing Ryan Hall was able to shut the door on the Express in the third in a period that was marred by after the whistle skirmishes. The Hawks protected the lead effectively through the third until Noah Robidoux showed off some Patrick Kane like hands making a mockery of the Express defense to get the insurance marker just prior to the 14 minute mark. The Express pushed late in the game, but were unable to get any closer on this night thanks to great effort from the red and black to close out the game. These 2 teams are back at it again in just 2 short sleeps on Thursday night at 7:30pm over at Ed Golding (East End) Arena. See you there!