The Nipawin Hawks will host the Humboldt Broncos Friday at the Centennial Arena. (Becky Zimmer/northeastNOW Staff)
Hawks Hawkey

Hawks look for revenge against Humboldt

Feb 11, 2022 | 1:00 PM

The Hawks are looking for a better result when the Broncos visit Nipawin Friday than what the club saw last Saturday at the Elgar Petersen Arena, a 7-0 Humboldt victory.

The Broncos are making their first visit of the season to the Centennial Arena after winning both games in Humboldt over the Hawks. Nipawin head Coach Tad Kozun said his team needs to stay focused and continue to compete and try and get back into the playoffs.

“If you look at the standings, yeah the hill is really steep, but you never want to be a team that rolls over and dies,” Kozun said. “You want to make sure hockey is still fun for the guys where they’re coming to the rink every day, they are having fun, making sure they compete, making sure they give their all. If you lose a tough one, you can live with those, but if you rollover and die and not compete, that’s unacceptable.”

The Hawks will start the weekend 10 points out of the final playoff spot with a dozen games remaining. Kozun still has belief his team can start generating wins and points, but time is of the essence. He said the club stands to learn plenty about themselves over the final month of the regular season.

“We’re a young team, these guys are learning a lot this year. It becomes part of the process where you need to hate to lose. Every time you lose it’s got to be one of those, ‘I am not going through this again’.”

The Hawks did stick with Humboldt in the first game between the teams back in November when Humboldt won 3-2 in a shootout. With the more recent lopsided loss, Kozun said his team needs to relish the underdog role for the remainder of the season.

A key factor in the third meeting of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) teams will be goaltending.

Chase Hamm will get the start for the Hawks. The rookie netminder out of Saskatoon has had a solid season behind a club that has scored the least number of goals in the SJHL this year.

Rayce Ramsay is expected to start for the Broncos. Ramsay has put together one of the best statistical seasons for an SJHL netminder in the internet era, collecting 33 wins in 42 appearances. Kozun said Nipawin will need to do their best to upset the 20-year-old Saskatoon born goaltender and University of Toronto commit.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for us tonight. We have to get to Ramsay,” he said. “He shut us out last game and he’s been putting up incredible numbers. We need to make sure we get traffic in front of him and make it a tough night for him. We need to get to the crease and make it tough on him to see the puck and make saves.”

Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. The teams will meet again on Feb. 18 to finish the season series.

clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @ClarkStork

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