The Pita Pit Minor Bantams are off to the OMHA
semifinals after winning a thrilling 5 game series versus the Peterborough Petes. Down 2 games to 0 in this best of 5 series,
the Hawks dug deep to win the next 3 games to capture their 3rd
straight Lakeshore League championship and now move on to the semifinals.
Games 1 and 2 ended in the same score 4 – 2 with the Hawks on the wrong side of the score each time. Game 1 goal scorers for QW were Cole Hazelwood (assists Kirk Stevenson) and Lukas Scaletta (Reighan Rosa, Hazlewood) while Stevenson and Walker Forsythe scored in Game 2. Facing elimination, the players and coaches took some time for a team meal the day before Game 3 to regroup and it worked!
With all games at this point must win for the Hawks, game 3 started out a close checking contest with neither team wanting to give in to the other with no score after the 1st. Early in the second, James Phillips opened the scoring for the Hawks (Rosa, Scaletta) followed shortly by another QW goal from Aidan Molenhuis (Josh Mathew, Rosa) to put the good guys up by 2. The Petes answered late in the 2nd and early in the 3rd to knot the score up at 2 – 2. The score remained tied and seemed destined for overtime until Hawks Caroline Dolton (Stevenson, Hazlewood) found the back of the net with 1 minute remaining to go up by 1. But the Petes battled right back to score with 30 seconds left to send the game into OT. Midway through OT Trey Cocek (Hazlewood, Rosa) gave the Hawks their first win of the series. Cody Harron earned the win for the Hawks.
Game 4 saw a lot of goals, a lot of penalties and several lead changes in this back and forth match. The Petes opened the scoring in the 1st but QW responded with goals from Hazlewood (Forsythe) and Cocek (Scaletta, Hazlewood) to lead 2 – 1 after 1. The second had the Hawks spending 8 minutes in the penalty box and seeing their lead erased to head into the third down 5 - 3. The lone Hawks goal came from Cocek (Hazlewood). Peterborough increased their lead to 3 goals early in the 3rd and things were not looking good. But there was still fight left in QW and they clawed their way back into the game to tie it up to send it into overtime again. Goals from Mathew (Molenhuis), Forsythe (Mathew, Dolton) and the game tieing heroics came from Stevenson (Hazlewood) with only 15 seconds left on the clock. With only 1-minute left in OT Mathew (Cocek) put the puck top shelf to seal the 7-6 win. Harron was in net for the win.
The deciding game 5 in the Dunc saw the Hawks come out strong and dominate the 1st period jumping to a 2-0 lead on goals from Mathew (Stevenson, Hazlewood) and Cocek (Hazlewood). The lead was extended to 3-0 in the second when Cocek netted his second of the game. Peterborough mounted some pressure in the latter part of the period as the Hawk’s energy level waned a bit and were rewarded with a goal late in the second. In the third period the Hawks played smart, simple hockey keeping the puck deep in the Peterborough zone whenever possible. With no scoring in the third, the final score was 3 – 1 sending the Hawks to the next round. Harron backstopped the team for the win.
The Minor Bantams will now face the Orillia Terriers.