Hawks break out in big win over Muskies

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Jay Thomson get the puck away from Shellbourne Muskies defence man Travis Knight. Hub photo

It was one the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks needed.

The Winterhawks broke out for five goals and snapped a two-game losing streak as they took a convincing 5-1 decision over the Shelburne Muskies on Friday night at The Plex.

The night started off with a nice touch, as Richard Harris made his first start in the Winterhawks net since the inaugural season in 2007/08, and was greeted by his team, the Saugeen Shores Storm peewee A/E, who carried the Bruce Telecom flags.

Perhaps adrenaline got the best of Harris, as he needed his posts to make a couple saves and survived a few goal mouth scrambles early on, but settled in quickly to keep the Muskies off the board.

The blue line got a shot in the arm as defenceman Jacob Brown made his season debut, and his physical presence was felt early on as he put a Muskies forward on his rear end in front of the Winterhawks net.

The Winterhawks were all over the Muskies as the 1st period continued, but Ed Davey was tough to beat as the Shelburne netminder turned away numerous chances.

Nick Quaid finally got the dam to burst as he stepped in off the point at 18:05 and snapped a shot over the shoulder of Davey to make it 1-0 Winterhawks.

All told, the Winterhawks outshot Shelburne 20-6 in the opening frame.

Early in the 2nd period, Bryan Kazarian would put the Winterhawks up 2-0 when he lead a 2-on-1 rush into the Muskies zone and snapped the puck past Davey, with assists to Chris Minard and Alex Kuntz.

Shelburne would get that one back seconds later as Kris Dobinson sent the puck through traffic in front, just evading the glove of Harris to make it a 2-1 game.

Shelburne would press for the equalizer, but Harris turned them aside 14 times in the 2nd period.

The Winterhawks would put the game out of reach in the 3rd, striking three times.

Curtis Johnston would notch his 2nd of the season at 3:41, banging home a loose puck in the slot, with Trent Hawke and Josh Hopkin picking up assists.

Hopkin would make it 4-1 at 9:38 when he sent a shot from the point through a crowd and past Davey, with assists from Kazarian and Minard.

Miles MacLean would round out the scoring, taking a pass on the rush from Connor Patton, putting a snap shot past Davey to make it 5-1 Winterhawks.

Harris would make 29 saves for the win, picking up the Wismer House player of the game honours, and was mobbed by a huge crowd of fans after the game.

The win moves the Winterhawks to 5-5-1 on the season, and they will now get set to face their biggest test of the season, as the undefeated defending champion Clinton Radars come to The Plex next Friday, December 15th for an 8:30 p.m. game time.

with files from winterhawks.net

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Saugeen Shores Winterhawk Forward Bryan Kazarian didn’t let the puck out of his site throughout the game against the Shellbourne Muskies, December 8 at the Plex. Hub photo

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