The Hawks fought back to tie Friday’s game against the Broncos twice, but in the end Humboldt hung on for a 3-2 victory.
Evan Forrest scored his fourth goal of the season for Nipawin, captain Maguire Ratzlaff added his second on the power-play in the third period. Assistant Coach Levi Stuart said a couple miscues and the Broncos capitalizing on a five-on-three power-play and the Hawks missing on theirs was the difference.
“Absolutely,” he agreed. Our five-on-three power-play and penalty killing is something we work on a lot in practice and execution on the defensive and offensive side is a big part of what this game comes down too. We miss an assignment on their advantage, we had some good chances on ours, but we couldn’t bury and that’s the game.”
The Hawks were 1/5 on the power-play, Humboldt scored once on four man advantages.
Damon Cunningham continues to be fantastic in the Nipawin net stopping 43 of 46 shots.
The teams will meet again in Humboldt on Saturday. Stuart said like last weekend against the North Stars, the Hawks can salvage the weekend with a win on the road.
“It was a good start tonight, we liked our effort, we thought it was one of if not our best full 60-minute effort tonight. We must continue to play that same way, bring that same energy, build off the momentum we had tonight and go in and take it to them,” Stuart concluded.
The pregame show on 750 Beach Radio begins at 6:45 p.m. from the Elgar Petersen Arena, faceoff is slated for 7 p.m.