Hawks win one of three on southern road trip; four points out of playoffs

“Big breaks for sure, they get one and we get a lucky one right back, we will take them as they come,” he added.

Captain Maguire Ratzlaff scored his 14^th in win as well while shorthanded.

Tyson Endall made 24 stops in the victory.

The win pushed the Hawks two points behind Weyburn for the final playoff spot.

Hawks doubled by Red Wings

The Hawks were in Weyburn on Saturday to conclude the road trip against the Red Wings with a chance to return home in a playoff spot, but they blew a two goal lead and lost 4-2.

Nipawin started the game strong scoring a pair of powerplay goals in the first period, took a 2-0 lead into the dressing room, but the Red Wings scored a pair in the second and two more in the third period to secure eighth position. The Hawks have lost seven games when going to the third period tied this year, their lone win in that situation was Friday in Estevan.

Weyburn scored two powerplay goals of their own, and a shorthanded marker into an empty net. Head Coach Tad Kozun said the second half of games has been an Achilles Heel all year, plus their second ranked penalty killing unit was only 50 percent in the loss.

“We’ve talked about it all year where we got away from it after the first period,” he said on the postgame show. “The powerplay gets two goals for us, we’ve talked about it a lot about how good our penalty killing has been and we give up two tonight. It’s tough because they have done the job all year.”

Finley Radloff scored his team leading 18^th goal early in the first, Eric Hoiness added his 11^th of his rookie campaign in the loss.

Damon Cunningham made 33 stops in the loss; the Hawks had 43 shots on Dazza Mitchell in the Weyburn net.

The two teams will meet again Wednesday in Nipawin for the fourth and final time, the Hawks have seven games remaining, the Red Wings have nine games remaining. Kozun said the team will review tape, regroup, and prepare for nothing less than a regulation victory on Wednesday.

“The guys never gave up, they kept pushing, they kept going, that’s exactly what you want to see out of them, you don’t want to roll over and die. We’ve got to get home, regroup, and be ready to go Wednesday because it’s obviously a massive game,” Kozun concluded on the broadcast.

Faceoff on Wednesday is 7 p.m.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

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by Clark Stork

Hawks win one of three on southern road trip; four points out of playoffs

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