GENEVA – The Fox Valley Hawks collected some much-needed points on their weekend road swing through Kankakee on Nov. 12 and Oak Lawn on Nov. 13.
Their matchup with Kankakee saw the Hawks (7-1-3) gain a point despite losing 7-6 in a shootout. The Hawks were unable to hold two different two-goal leads in the loss, something that was not lost on Hawks coach Phil Gabrielsen.
“We were up 6-4 in the third period and just could not hold a lead,” he said. “It is something we can fix, and we used this game as a teaching lesson to the boys about the importance of not letting up when you have a lead and needing to close a team out.
“We do still have to learn how to have a killer instinct.”
While the team is not suffering from a lack of being able to put the puck in the net, the Hawks are still going through some growing pains when it comes to defending.
Against Kankakee, the Hawks got scoring from Austin DeVitto (St. Charles East), who had two goals and an assist, and Morgan York (St. Charles East), who helped out with two goals. Josh Gadow (St. Charles East) also had a goal, but the effort was just not enough.
“We just need to have our six defensemen step up more when we get leads like we did against Kankakee,” Gabrielsen said. “Problem is, when you score so many goals, you tend to forget about defense sometimes. So we need to do a better job of focusing in on that part of our game.”
The Hawks made up for their shootout loss by getting a 3-2 shootout win against the COBRAS at Oak Lawn Ice Arena. While taking only two minor penalties, the Hawks received goals from York and DeVitto while outshooting their opponents 41-19 in regulation time.
“We played some better defense, I thought,” Gabrielsen said. “Our back-checking was better and we had better defensive positioning. I think one of the good things to come out of this weekend was the fact that we have not lost a game in regulation time. I just don’t like giving up leads is all.”
Gabrielsen complimented the play of his special teams, especially his penalty-killing unit.
“We have been really successful on our PK,” he said. “I think that stems from the fact we have very aggressive penalty killers out on the ice when we have to [go on the PK]. Our PK has done great in forcing turnovers by the other teams when they are on the man-advantage.”
The Hawks also earned a 7-4 win against Guerin/Nazareth on Nov. 6 at Fox Valley Ice Arena. A one-goal lead by the home team exploded into a three-goal edge midway through the third period.
The Hawks also got four players back who had been playing football. The St. Charles East football team’s season ended Nov. 12.
The Hawks will have a home-and-home series with the Mid-Valley Rampage this weekend. They will face the Rampage at Carol Stream Ice Arena at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 19 and travel to the Leafs Centre in Crystal Lake to finish the brief two-game series at 7:20 p.m. Nov. 20.