The Hawkesbury Hawks have been considered by most people as an “un-noticed team” this season. Known to most as a team that fly’s under the radar on a Friday morning in Vankleek Hill or a club that finds a way to win a one goal hockey game. The fact is that the Hawks continue to get the job done on a nightly basis. They currently hold a 24-12-1 record with 49 points, which is good for third in the leagues standings.
Outside of the Carleton Place Canadians and Ottawa Jr. Senators, the Hawkesbury Hawks are battling for the third seed in the CCHL’s standings. Ottawa is currently 16 points ahead of Hawkesbury for second in the standings but Hawks head coach, Rick Dorval still remains optimistic on his team’s chances in passing Ottawa going forward.
“We have four games left against Ottawa” We will do our very best to take a run and put a little steam or their behind and see if we can catch them”.
Battling with Hawkesbury for third in the CCHL’s standings are the Braves, Colts and Lasers at this point in the year. They remain just three points ahead of Brockville and four point’s in-front of Kanata and Cornwall for the third seed.
“We would love to have third, our goal is to continue to get better on a daily basis and hope we can get healthy” mentioned Dorval on his teams play. “We want to compete down the stretch, we like our group and we know we’ve had some success so far”.
Currently on the injured reserve list are D-men Colin Stevens, Andres Johnson, Nicolas Guillemette, Maxime Fortin and forwards Tyler Boivin, Michael Marleau Patrick O’Neal and Matt Gasuik.
Despite the injuries the “Moldy Hawks” we able to string together a few wins, going 6-3 in the month of December, winning three by one goal and two by two goals.
“Fatigue defiantly started to kick in with us basically being on the road since September and not being able to use all the things that our facility provides to our players from a rehab perspective” said Dorval on playing without a home rink since September. “We played the last two weeks without our top three defenseman which meant that some guys had to step it up and play some curtail minutes”.
One of those guys that stepped it up was ’98 born D-man Mike Nantais who has gone under the radar as one of the league’s most reliable guys on the backend “He played some curtail minutes for us (Hawkesbury) and he’s an absolute stud. It showed why we were so high on him during the summer time” said Dorval.
Having said that, the Hawks most notably received a giant amount of contribution from their captain, David Jankowski who scored 12 goals in December and a total of 19 points.
“Jankowski’s play in December gave us a chance to be successful every single night and compete on a nightly basis” noted Hawks, Head Coach Rick Dorval.
With the amount of injuries the Hawks had, Hawkesbury captain David Jankowski feels the team had a full team effort on a nightly basis. “The guys that were healthy stepped things up and everyone chipped in a little more. We were able to grind through some games and get some must needed wins that helped our record”.
Hawkesbury played in a total of five games decided by two goals or less in December and have played in ten two goal decisions since the start of November.
“Rick just wants us to stick to the game plan and not give up many chances” said Jankowski on competing in close hockey games. “We want to play stingy defensive hockey and try to not to give them any chances because if we do that we will come on top”.
In the month of January, the Hawks most notably take on the Lasers, Nationals, Canadians and Ottawa Jr. Senators as part of a seven game schedule. Making a case to take a run is one goal but Jankowski thinks making the CJHL Top 20 Rankings is in reach for Hawkesbury.
“That’s what we’re striving towards and we’re always trying to look ahead and see what kind of damage we can do. We want to catch teams that are ahead of us because third is not a bad spot to be in but we’re pushing to be better and the team is going to focus on catching some teams that are ahead of us”.
The Hawkesbury Hawks begin their 2018 calendar tonight (Thursday, January 4th) when they take on the Kanata Lasers at 7:30 inside the KRC. Their first game back at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex is Friday, January 12th at 7:30 when the Carleton Place Canadians come to town.
Dante De Caria, CCHL Tier 1
