A shorthanded Winterhawks squad opened the 2022/23 season with a road loss to the Seaforth Centenaires.
In a October 9 submission from the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks said they were in tough against the defending champions from Seaforth to begin with, but with only 11 skaters available for Saturday's opener, the task was decidedly more uphill from the start.
Seaforth jumped out early to a 2-0 lead after one period and continued to pour it on in the second, but the Winterhawks battled hard to keep pace, at one point narrowing the Seaforth lead to 4-2.
Winterhawks second period goals were scored by ageless veteran Bill Monkman, and Jordan Vanhaelemeesch, who notched his first career senior hockey goal.
The rust of the season opener paired with the short bench proved to be too much, as the wheels came off and Seaforth put four goals past Winterhawks starter Eric Peicheff to end the second period with an 8-2 deficit.
The Winterhawks battled despite the lopsided score, adding one more goal in the third period from Miles MacLean, while Matt Tutin posted a clean period in goal as he came in in relief of Peicheff, to make it an 8-3 final in favour of the home side.
The Winterhawks are off for a couple weeks to regroup, next in action on the road on Sunday October 23rd, when they travel to Milverton to take on the Four Wheel Drives at 2pm.
SCHEDULING NOTE:
Due to the folding of the Clinton Radars for the 2022/23 season, the home opener scheduled for October 21st at The Plex will not take place as originally scheduled. We apologize for the inconvenience, however, the situation is out of our control.
The Winterhawks will instead play an additional home game against the Shallow Lake Crushers, and a road game with the Ripley Wolves to make up for the two games that would have been played against Clinton.
The road game will be played on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7pm in Ripley.
The home game against Shallow Lake has yet to be finalized, as we continue to work with the Crushers to find a mutually available date and subsequent ice time.
The Winterhawks home opener is likely to be the next currently-scheduled home game, which is Friday November 4th against Seaforth at 8:30pm at The Plex.
Further scheduling updates will be communicated when finalized.
