The Hawks got 32 stops from Gage Roberts but came up short in a 3-1 loss to Yorkton Friday. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Close but not close enough

Hawks fall short in Yorkton

Oct 12, 2024 | 12:37 PM

The Nipawin Hawks put up a valiant fight in Yorkton Friday in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) action but came up short falling, 3-1.

Facing a team suiting up eight 20 year-olds and sporting just one loss, the youthful Hawks competed until the final minute when Yorkton salted the game away with a late empty net tally.

Hawks Head Coach Tad Kozun said his team battled for 60 minutes on the road much to his appreciation.

“I thought some guys had some off nights where they weren’t feeling the puck or handling the puck the best, that stuff is going to happen, but we never stopped moving and we never stopped competing, that’s a positive sign. We’ve just got to learn from this,” Kozun said on the postgame show on 750 Beach Radio.

Meeting for the first of four times this SJHL season, Yorkton opened the scoring late in the first period. The Terriers took a two-goal advantage early in the second period, however, the Hawks clawed back to within one courtesy of second-year forward Eric Hoiness who jammed his first goal of the year past Callum Creig.

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The score remained 2-1 until the final minute, but Yorkton capped the scoring with 36 seconds left while starting goaltender Gage Roberts was on the bench for an extra attacker. Kozun admitted being within a shot of one of the top teams early this season will help his group grow.

“A team that’s lost one game in Yorkton, we were right there until the bitter end,” he said. “We will obviously clean up a few things, we will move forward and continue our process of what we’re doing, and we are going to be ok.”

Roberts went on to make 32 stops in the loss, many highlight reel efforts were involved. The Hawks only generated 26 on Creig, a number Kozun needs to see an increase if the team hopes to start collecting some victories.

“My biggest takeaway from tonight is we had too many shots from the outside. We didn’t get to the ‘house,’ we didn’t get the grade ‘A’ scoring opportunities you need to win hockey games and when you do that you are on the wrong side of it,” he concluded.

The Hawks have the rest of the long weekend off, the team hosts Weyburn on Wednesday at the Centennial Arena.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com