After a tough start to the season, the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks are back to even par on the season.
The Winterhawks pushed their record back to .500 after they reeled off a 5-1 road win over the Ripley Wolves on Saturday night.
The lineup got a boost right off the start as defending league scoring champion Bryan Kazarian returned to the lineup after missing the past two weeks with a hand injury.
Both teams spent a good portion of the 1st period feeling each other out, with neither team able to find much offence, though Josh Sturrock shut the door on a Ripley powerplay late in the period.
Andy Mitchell finally broke the stalemate at 16:57 of the 1st, scoring unassisted to give the Winterhawks a 1-0 lead they would carry into the intermission.
Sturrock kept his team ahead early on in the 2nd as the Winterhawks found themselves in penalty trouble, but the Wolves couldn't beat the veteran netminder.
The Winterhawks would boost the lead to 2-0 on a powerplay of their own, with Kazarian feeding Brendon Haefling, who beat Mitch Campbell for the goal.
As the period wore on, the attention shifted to a night-long battle between the Winterhawks Alex Penner and former Winterhawk Ryan Dudgeon.
Penner would wind up in the box early in the 3rd as the pair exchanged pleasantries again, but Trent Hawke would score shorthanded at 2:02 to make it 3-0 Winterhawks, with Blake Underwood assisting.
Kazarian would then boost the lead to 4-0 at 9:03 of the 3rd, with Penner and Curtis Johnston assisting on the goal.
Sturrock stood tall again in the Winterhawks net as he pushed for his first shutout in a Saugeen Shores uniform, but it was not to be on this night.
With Penner and Hawke in the sin bin, the Wolves were finally able to solve Sturrock at 17:51 of the 3rd, to make it a 4-1 game.
Jacob Brown would add an empty netter to make it a 5-1 win for the Winterhawks.
The win is the Winterhawks third in a row and improves their record to 4-4-0 on the season, finishing off a run of five games in a row on the road.
After taking next weekend off, the Winterhawks will be back home at The Plex on Friday November 27 for an 8:30 p.m. start against the Lucknow Lancers.
with files from winterhawks.net
