A shorthanded Winterhawks squad put up a valiant fight, but couldn't keep up with the Ripley Wolves on Friday night.
Starting out the game with just 14 available skaters, the Winterhawks lost center Brett Underwood at the beginning of the game due to a facial injury and he was unable to return.
Ripley got on the board early, as Tyson Soers picked up a 2-on-1 feed from Jared Colling, beating goalie Mitch Roulston at the 1:40 mark of the first period.
Rookie netminder Mitch Campbell was tested early in the Ripley net, as Brent MacDermid got in alone on him, but he turned away the Winterhawks winger on multiple chances.
The Wolves jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Cody Britton broke in on Roulston and fired a shot that hit Roulston's glove, but he couldn't get enough of it and it beat the Winterhawks netminder.
The Winterhawks hoped to get to within one with an early powerplay in the second period, but the Wolves were the ones to capitalize on a bizarre goal. As the puck was iced by Tyler de Vos of the Wolves, Roulston went behind his net to await the puck as it ringed around the boards. However, the puck caught the edge of the Zamboni door at The Plex and bounced out in front of the net, with Ripley's Colling taking advantage of the easy tap-in goal to make it 3-0.
Bryan Kazarian got the Winterhawks on the board at 13:56 of the second, taking a shot in close on Campbell that snuck through the arm of the Wolves goalie and just barely crossed the line to cut the Wolves lead to 3-1.
Ripley got the goal back at 15:16, when a shot from the point was stopped by Roulston, but the rebound was picked up by Drew Davidson, who stepped around Roulston for the goal.
Nick Quaid cut the lead to 4-2 early in the third period when he walked in off the point and fired a laser beam over Campbell's shoulder.
The Wolves extended the lead to three goals yet again, when Brett Catto took a powerplay point shot that deflected off a Winterhawks defender and past Roulston to make it 5-2.
The Winterhawks made it 5-3 just over two minutes later when Jacob Brown deflected in a Greg Thede point shot, but that's a close as the Winterhawks would get, falling to 1-2-0 on the season.
The Winterhawks head to Palmerston Saturday night, October 24 to face the Mapleton-Minto 81s at 7:00 p.m., for the first of five games in a row on the road.
The next home game is November 27, when the Winterhawks face the Lucknow Lancers.
