Sailors - Sailors drop two over weekend
For one period, it looked like the Sailors were going to give an arrogant Walkerton Hawks squad all they could handle, but a chippy affair ended up going the wrong way for the Sailors in the long run, who lost their second game of the home-an-home series on Saturday night at home.
The tone for the game was set just 47 seconds in with a gutless hit from behind on Curtis Taylor by Hawks forward Hayden Campbell. After the dust cleared, the Sailors were without Taylor (possible concussion) and Spencer Aspden (fighting major).
The conflict seemed to light an early fire under the Sailors, who traded goals with the Hawks and went into an early first intermission (due to some lighting issues with 3 minutes left in the period) tied at two. Brandon Priestap had both Sailors goals. Nic Gowing, Shawn Moore and Sam Feagan helped out with assists.
After that, things continued to go wrong for the Sailors. Shawn Moore, who has been one of the best for the Sailors of recent, obliged a lesser Hawk and was ejected with a fighting major. Josh Martel left the game with injury, with Ben Gowing already out with injury, that left the Sailors without 5 forwards, and forced to play almost half the game with only 11 skaters, and unable to contain the offense of the Hawks.
Although neither of the weekend's scores looked promising on paper, when their line-up was full and playing with passion, the Sailors gave the Hawks, who have been playing far below their dollar value as of late, a run for their money. It looks like the first round of the playoffs between these two teams will be an entertaining one, and may just go further than most would expect.
That being said, there is still one weekend of the regular season left. On Friday night, the Sailors head to Kincardine to try and dump the Bulldogs, who edged the Sailors in a shootout last weekend. The Sailors wrap up their regular season at home on Sunday against the Mitchell Hawks. Without football to watch, the Sailors are hoping for a big Hockeyville-style crowd for the 4:30pm start.
