The Winchester Hawks welcomed the Ottawa West Golden Knights to the Joel Steele Community Centre on Sat., Sept. 7, in the CCHL2 exhibition season. The Winchester Hawks’ forward, Kyle Kuehni (12) gets past the Golden Knights’ defenseman, Jack Dewan (3) and beats goalie, Shane Morris late in the second period. The goal made it 3-2 for the Golden Knights but the Hawks completed a comeback taking the game 4-3. Moore photo

WINCHESTER—The Winchester Hawks played three preseason games this past week as they travelled to Cardinal on Wednesday night to take on the Brockville Tikis, welcomed the Ottawa West Golden Knights on Saturday night and the Embrun Panthers on Sunday afternoon.

Hawks 2 Panthers 1 (OT)

The Winchester Hawks welcomed the Embrun Panthers to the Joel Steele Community Centre on Sun., Sept. 8, in the CCHL2 preseason. The Hawks went into the game with one win and one loss and the Panthers had just one loss. 

It was a fast paced first period with end to end action but neither team was able to find the back of the net, taking a scoreless draw into the first intermission. The Panthers outshot the Hawks 13-11 in the first period. 

The game appeared to be heading to their second scoreless period but with just 1:33 remaining in the second period, Justin Shay batted one home from Nicholas Corry and Noah Weatherall on the power play and took the 1-0 lead into the second intermission. 

The Hawks outshot the Panthers in the second period 11-10. The Hawks looked to be heading for their second consecutive victory but drew a late penalty and with just 1:32 remaining in regulation, the Panthers’ John Mahoney scored a power play goal unassisted tying the game at one. 

Neither team was able to score before the final buzzer sounded, so the game headed to a three-on-three overtime period. In the extra frame it was the Hawks that finished the game as Kyle Kuehni snapped one home from Danny Johnson at 2:40. 

The Hawks improved their record to 2-1 while the Panthers sink to 0-2. Picking up the win in the Hawks goal were Cole Defazio making 13 saves on 13 shots, Josh Paradis making 10 saves on 10 shots and Xavier Dusablon making 18 saves on 19 shots. 

Suffering the loss in the Panthers goal were Joshua Ivanski making 17 saves on 19 shots and William Nguyen making 11 saves on 11 shots.

Hawks 4 Golden Knights 3

The Winchester Hawks welcomed the Ottawa West Golden Knights to the Joel Steele Community Centre on Sat., Sept. 7, in the CCHL2 exhibition season. The Hawks dropped their first game of the season 7-5 to the Brockville Tikis in their previous game and looked to move to 1-1. 

The Golden Knights opened the scoring just 2:10 into the first period to take a 1-0 lead. With time winding down in the opening frame, the Hawks’ goal scoring leader from last season, Kyle Kuehni slid home a loose puck after a rebound to knot the affair with just 1:06 remaining. The teams took the one-all stalemate into the first intermission. 

The Golden Knights retook the lead at 13:47 on the power play and took a two-goal lead at 17:06. The Hawks responded just nine seconds later, as Kuehni scored his second of the game from Danny Johnson and Marco Haw. The Golden Knights took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission. The Hawks tied the game at 12:17 as Jacob Giacobbi lit the lantern from Kuehni and Johnson. 

With just 1:50 remaining in regulation, the Hawks took their first lead of the game as Haw pounded one home from Kuehni and Brady Meldrum and hung on for a 4-3 victory. The Hawks moved to 1-1 in the preseason and the Golden Knights slipped to 1-3. 

Picking up the win in the Hawks’ goal were Josh Paradis making six saves on seven shots, Xavier Dusablon with 11 saves on 13 shots and Cole Defazio who stopped all four shots that he faced. 

Tikis 7 Hawks 5

The Winchester Hawks travelled to the Ingredient Centre in Cardinal to take on the Brockville Tikis on Wed., Sept. 4, in a little CCHL2 preseason action. The Hawks finished the 2018-19 season with a record of 15 wins, 24 loses, three overtime losses and two shootout loses in seventh place in the Martin Division. 

The Hawks look to turn things around this season after signing some veteran help. The Hawks opened the scoring when Alex Bergeron slapped one home from Colby Schroeder at 4:33 of the first period taking a 1-0 lead. 

The Tikis tied the game at 9:19 and took their first lead of the game exactly one minute later. The Tikis added a late goal with just 55 seconds remaining in the opening frame and took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. 

The Hawks got to within one as Nathan Lassenba snapped one to the back of the net from Danny Johnson just 1:14 into the second period. The Hawks knotted the affair at three when Nicholas Corry rifled one home from William MacDonald at 5:22 but the Tikis answered with an unassisted goal at 15:46. 

The Hawks tied the game again as Lassenba scored his second of the game from Johnson and Braden Cheney 15:05 to make it 4-4. The Tikis retook the lead at 15:56 and just 29 seconds later retook a two-goal lead. The Tikis took a 6-4 lead into the second intermission. 

The Tikis took a three-goal lead at the 18-minute mark of the third period. The Hawks scored a late goal with just 1:29 remaining as Kyle Fleming scored from Schroeder but it was too little, too late as the Tikis went on to take the game 7-5. 

Suffering the loss in the Hawks’ goal were Xavier Dusablon making 10 saves on 13 shots and Daniel Cristea making 16 saves on 20 shots.

Up next

The Winchester Hawks continue their exhibition season when they travel to the Barbara Ann Scott Arena in Ottawa to take on the Ottawa West Golden Knights on Thurs., Sept. 12, at 7:20 p.m. and then to the Palais des Sports in Embrun  on Fri., Sept. 13, to take on the Panthers at 7:30 p.m.