The Hawkesbury Hawks will be facing the Cornwall Colts in the first round of the CCHL playoffs after finishing 6th in the league.
The Hawks clinched 6th place in a 5-3 victory against the Rockland Nationals that ended a 6-game losing streak for Hawkesbury.
The Nats were first to score in that game, with a shorthanded goal by Tristan-Félix Tremblay just two minutes in. Maxime Charbonneau tied the game up after just a minute of play in the second. Nearing the 11-minute mark, Jack Treacy gave back the lead to Rockland, but Aidan Stubbings tied the game at 2-2 with his own shorthanded goal three minutes later.
Samuel Dumont gave the Nationals the lead again in the late second period with their third and final goal of the game.
The third period was the Hawks’ alone with three back-to-back goals by Alex Fournier, Maxime Charbonneau and Cody Horner, which gave the Hawks the win and their 60th point of the season.
Renfrew Wolves
The Hawks travelled to Renfrew for their final game of the regular season on Friday March 15, still unsure of where they would fall in the standings.
The game was tied until the end of the third period when the Wolves scored 4 goals in quick succession, by Noah VomScheidt, Jace Letourneau and two by Kai Billey.
According to head coach and general manager Marc Berniqué, he had called a timeout with five minutes left to the game to tell his team 6th place was clinched and a victory would not change the standings to ensure that none of his players would take a major penalty and get suspended or put themselves in a dangerous position and get injured before the playoffs.
Playoff Hopes
The Cornwall Colts, the Hawks’ first round opponents, finished the season in 3rd place in the CCHL, 11 points ahead of the Hawks.
“They have one of the best defenses in the league, and have a pretty good offense too” said Berniqué. The Hawks’ head coach said the key to this series will be discipline and special teams. He believes the series will be a hard-fought one that may go to seven games.
“Of course, we want to play until May and go to the Centennial Cup, but we have to take it one game at a time, and one series at a time” added Berniqué.
