The Hawks celebrate a goal Friday in SJHL action in Nipawin, but lost 5-2 to Yorkton. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)
Friday Night Lights

Hawks flightless on Friday

Nov 11, 2023 | 9:47 AM

The Nipawin Hawks opened their annual parent/billet weekend celebration with a thud on the ice losing 5-2 to Yorkton Friday.

With parents of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) players visiting from across Western Canada and some States the Hawks were looking to continue their momentum from Tuesday’s home ice victory over Melville. However, giving up four unanswered goals against the 10th ranked Terriers didn’t sit well with Assistant Coach Levi Stuart.

“Insult to injury, obviously we wanted to go out and put on a show for the parents and that’s not even close to the kind of effort that we have to bring on a night to night basis,” he said after the game.

Yorkton opened the scoring during a Nipawin power-play in the first period and took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The Hawks tied the game in the middle period, Ronan Buckburger scored his sixth goal of his rookie SJHL season, however the Terriers took over from there.

The Terriers added two in the second and another pair of goals in the third including an empty-net shorthanded marker in the final minutes.

Landon Pappas slapped his second of the year past Ethan Farrow late on a Hawks man advantage.

The loss followed the narrative of the Hawks season, failing to backup a spirited performance in the previous game.

“Every time we seem to get a win we look forward to the next game and know what it takes, but we take our foot off the gas pedal,” Stuart continued. “We think it’s going to be easy in a sense and start trying to make the fancy play and getting away from the work and simplicity that gave us the success in the first place.”

Nipawin was awarded six power-plays, the Hawks scored once, the Terriers had five power-plays, they didn’t score on any of the chances.

Farrow won his second straight start for Yorkton after returning to Canada from the North American Hockey League (NAHL), he made 28 saves. Damon Cunningham suffered the loss for the Hawks allowing four goals on 29 Yorkton shots.

The Hawks will try to salvage the weekend versus Melfort at the ‘Cage’ Saturday. Stuart said whether the next game is against their rivals or not, the effort needs to be much hire.

“We’ve got to find a way to bring that emotion and intensity and get those two points, no matter who it is. At the end of the day, we need to be able to find that emotion and intensity like we had Tuesday and bring it every game,” he said.

Faceoff is 7 p.m., the Hawks first annual Calcutta will take place after the game as well.

clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @ClarkStork

View Comments