January 31, 2006 > Blackhawks keep Cougars on their toes

by Pal and Kaisa

After the strong game of last Saturday against Tri Valley the Blackhawks took it to the next level this week when they faced the undefeated Cougars at Vallco. The first five minutes the Hawks kept the puck in the home team's zone and generated numerous scoring chances. If not for the lucky bounces for the Cougars, we could have scored at least two goals.

But as it usually goes, if a team misses too many chances, they often end up giving up a goal themselves. This happened to the Hawks when 6:59 was left from the first period and the Cougars scored on a powerplay (some of us thought that Tyler had the puck in his glove and the refs should have whistled but the goal was given to the Cougars nevertheless). The Hawks got a little shell-shocked and the Cougars managed to score a second goal from a break-away just a couple of minutes later. The second period continued similarly with the home team dominating in the beginning and scoring their third.

What happened after this was quite amazing and showed the potential of the Blackhawks. They found energy and motivation to fight back and score two goals in the second period. The first one was shot by Nathan Lundberg, assisted by Anthony Corini and Glen Ilagan.

And this was not enough... After some great passing and several shots Krisopher Haddad scored the second, assisted by line mates Brandon Shank and Oliver Takacsi-Nagy.

In the entire third period the Hawks dominated the game. They outplayed their opponent, hit hard, hustled hard and if not for great goaltending and a bit of luck on the Cougars part they could have tied or even won the game. It was also apparent that the Hawks were the better conditioned team and had gas left in the tank at the end to skate hard and fast and to make hits (thanks to great coaching and hard work at practices on-ice and dry land.

Goaltender Tyler Martz played an excellent game and saved 22/25 shots.