The Hawkesbury Hawks losing streak hit three games over the weekend. The team only has four wins in their last 10 games and have been overtaken in the standings by the red hot Ottawa Junior Senators. The Senators have only played 32 games, four fewer than the Hawks and three fewer than the first place Carleton Place Canadians.
Friday night the Cornwall Colts were in Hawkesbury. The first period was a wide open, back and forth affair. Cornwall opened the scoring three minutes into the game. Hawkesbury’s Oliver Lester scored on a point shot to tie the game a minute later. Jonny Cyr scored on the power play midway through the frame to make it 2-1 Hawks. Maxime Cote scored on a breakaway to give the Hawks a 3-1 lead in the first period. 30 seconds later Cornwall’s Josh Peladeau made it 3-2. Vincent Robillard would tie the game with just over 1 minute to go in a wild first period.
Cornwall would regain the lead 31 seconds into the second period. Brennan Markell made it 5-3 seven minutes in. Bruno Cheff set up Zach Fournier who buried it to make it 5-4 Cornwall, but that was as close as the Hawks would get as Cornwall picked up the win.
The Hawks hosted the Brockville Braves on Saturday night. The two teams battled to a 3-3 draw after the end of regulation. Matthew Chan was solid in the nets stopping 40 of the 43 shots he faced. Overtime solved nothing, so it was off to shootouts where the Braves emerged victorious.
The Hawks only have two more games before the Christmas break. Friday night the last place Gloucester Rangers are in town. On Tuesday the team will be Bear hunting in Smiths Falls.
Jekyll and Hyde Cougars continue up and down play
On paper the Vankleek Hill Cougars should have had a pretty easy weekend facing the Papineauville Vikings and the Morrisburg Lions, with both teams below them in the standings. Friday night the Cougars were ragdolled by the Vikings 7-2 in Papineauville. Back at home on Saturday, they narrowly defeated the last place Morrisburg Lions 3-1. Tyler Dopelhammer had an excellent game scoring twice in the win.
The Cougars will round out 2016 with two very tough matchups. Friday night the team travels to Embrun to take on the first place Panthers. The Rockland Nationals are in town Saturday night. The last time the two clubs faced off, the Cougars tied the Nats 7-7 in Rockland.
By Mac Hinton and Jason Jackson
