The Nipawin Hawks pepper the Kindersley Klippers with one of their 40 shots during a late power play. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW) : Teena Monteleone

By Aaron Schulze

Hawks vs Klippers

Hawks push but can’t crack Klippers

Feb 23, 2019 | 12:18 PM

The Nipawin Hawks appeared rested and ready to play on Friday, Feb. 22 after having nearly two weeks to regroup from their previous heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to the Kindersley Klippers.

By the media timeout, with around eight minutes left in the first period, the Hawks had outshot the Klippers 14-3, looked crisper with their passing on the power play, and were rewarded with a Walker Cote wrist shot to give them the lead.

Despite the power play goal, special teams would be the Hawks’ Achilles heel.

The Klippers responded with two power play goals of their own. The first from a Clay Keeley blast from the point nearly five minutes after the Hawks took the lead. The other, in the second period, where an unfortunately timed Hawks line change gave up a 4-on-2 and an Austin Nault bar down goal.

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Midway through the second period, the Hawks trailed 2-1 while outshooting the Klippers 20-15 and they didn’t look back from there.

In the final 29 minutes, the Hawks outshot the Klippers 20-2, but couldn’t find the tying goal to at least give them one point as they fell 2-1 again.

Klippers goaltender Justen Close made 39 saves. He committed to the University of Minnesota earlier in the week – a five-time NCAA Division I national championship team.

Devin Windle, assistant coach for the Hawks, called the game against the Klippers a quality effort from all his players.

“We didn’t do a few things right to get in some of the tougher areas of the rink, in front of their goaltender specifically,” Windle told northeastNOW. “If you consider our effort as a whole, there’s not a whole lot to be disappointed in tonight. If we shoot the puck just a hair quicker when we’ve got some of those looks, we could have been a lot more efficient.”

Even with the regulation loss to the Klippers, the Hawks still lead them by one point with five games remaining in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season and lead the Melfort Mustangs by two points in the Sherwood Division. However, the good news doesn’t mean there isn’t frustration within the Hawks dressing room after back-to-back one-goal games.

“Regardless of how good your goaltending is, if you don’t score you will not win,” Windle said. “There’s some frustration from some guys that need to do a little bit more, try to be a little more offensive and get to the grittier areas of the rink. At the same time, there are some guys that really did play a great game tonight. They can look back at some of the things that made them successful and how to replicate that again.”

The Hawks host the Yorkton Terriers on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Centennial Arena at 7:30 p.m.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow