The Wilfrid Laurier men’s hockey team demolished the Waterloo Warriors in another Battle of Waterloo, as they came away with a massive 9-0 win on Thursday, Nov. 30.
Laurier has now racked up five straight wins against their rivals down the road.
The Hawks dominated from start to finish and put together their best performance of the season.
The goals didn’t stop coming as eight different Hawks ended up scoring the nine goals, with two coming from defenceman Alex Adams.
“We capitalized on our scoring chances. We created our opportunities by having good pressure. When we were given time, we made some nice plays,” head coach Greg Puhalski said.
The nine goal margin of victory over Waterloo was the biggest for Laurier since 2002, when they the beat the Warriors by a score of 10-0.
The offensive output was impressive from the Hawks, but their defensive display was just as good.
Goaltender Chris Festarini made 31 saves in what was the first shutout of his career.
The Hawks’ biggest loss so far has been the 4-1 defeat against the Lions. They have the ability to stay in any game against anybody and that is a testament towards the amazing amount of effort this teams puts in every single day.
Following the game against the Warriors, the Hawks took on the York Lions on the second night of a back-to-back on Friday, Dec. 1.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as well for Laurier against the Lions, as they concluded the first half of their season with a 4-1 loss.
The only goal for the Hawks in the game came from winger Neil Aird, early in the third period.
The goal cut the Lions lead to one, but York added two more in the third and it was just too much for the Hawks to overcome.
Laurier just couldn’t find enough offense during the game and it ultimately led to their fourth loss of the season.
This loss now puts Laurier at third place in the OUA West division, as they trail York and Guelph by one point.
Even though the Hawks would have liked to go into the break on a high note, the loss isn’t too disappointing as their season so far has been very successful.
The Hawks have all the makings of a playoff team as they have even pulled out some wins when they weren’t playing their best hockey.
“Up to this point of the season, we have had good depth on our team play. Meaning offensively, we have received scoring from all our players and we are not relying on certain individuals. Defensively, all players understand we need to play a certain way to have success,” Puhalski added.
The depth on this team is exactly what makes the Hawks so tough to stop. Opposing teams can’t key on a single player because the Hawks feature a number of different threats in all phases of the game.
However, there are some adjustments that Laurier will have to make in order to be where they want to be in the second half of the season and in the playoffs.
Puhalski pointed to turnovers as an area of improvement for the Hawks.
“We need to decrease the number of turnovers we have per game and we need to improve our overall execution of our game plan,” he said.
The Hawks’ biggest loss so far has been the 4-1 defeat against the Lions. They have the ability to stay in any game against anybody and that is a testament towards the amazing amount of effort this teams puts in every single day.
If the Hawks can figure out a way to cut out some of the cheap turnovers they have been committing, they can turn losses into wins.
This is a very well balanced team that is only getting better as the season goes along.
The break has come at a good time for the Hawks, and with the amount of talent on this team, one can expect them to take the next step forward in the second half of the season.
