By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Another shutdown from the later part of December to early February wasn’t welcome for most minor hockey teams.
They had already spent the previous year without traditional hockey.
It certainly proved to be beneficial, though, for the Northumberland Nighthawks Scotiabank U18 AA team.
The Nighthawks won just five and tied one of their first 16 games leading up to Dec. 20, their last game prior to the lengthy shutdown due to provincial government restrictions.
“It was a real shaky start to the year and the first half we were second last in the league until the COVID break,” said head coach Jacob Spicer, adding the break was “probably one of the best things for our team.
“We came back kind of rejuvenated and started winning some games that if you look at the standings we shouldn’t have been winning, got some confidence. Some kids got some new roles on the team and really relished those new roles and bought in.”
Northumberland went 8-3 in February to finish the regular season in sixth place at 13-13-1. They advanced from their first round-robin series against North Durham, Pickering, Ajax and Belleville with a second-place record of 3-1.
A victory over the Pickering Panthers was a key one for the Nighthawks, which sustained numerous injuries during that contest.
“That was the game that really got things rolling,” Spicer said. “We had a bunch of injuries and we just scratched and clawed and found a way to win and then kind of kept riding the wave from there.”
In the next round-robin series, the shorthanded Nighthawks earned a tough road win over the league-leading Kingston Canadians in their opening game.
“We at one point had more coaches on the bench than players,” Spicer remarked. “We still found a way to win that game 2-1.”
Wins of 4-3 over the Clarington Toros and 3-2 over the North Durham Warriors earned the Nighthawks their berth in the OMHA championship tournament, which runs Friday to Sunday in Kingston.
Team members of the U18 Nighthawks are: goaltenders Oscar Brown and Aidan Crowley as well as Spencer Eriksson, Noah Richard, Owen Brocanier, Ben Lynch, Emmett McCormack, Andrew Eriksson, Owen Hammond, Carson Kerr, Brody Swayne, Sidney Wakely, Patrick Boivin, Aidan Rogers and Jacob Bone.
Spicer said he has coached a majority of the players since they were 12, first as an assistant before taking on head coaching duties two seasons ago. He’s thrilled for the players to have an opportunity to compete at the OMHA championship.
“None of them have really had a winning season so it’s nice for a lot of these kids in their last year or two of minor hockey to be able to go on a run like this,” he said.
The Nighthawks open their OMHA U18 AA schedule Friday at 10:15 a.m. against Markham/Unionville and take on the Oakville Rangers Blue that evening at 8:15 p.m. They conclude round-robin play Saturday, 2:15 p.m., against the Guelph Gryphons.
Semifinal games are scheduled for Sunday at 10 and 10:15 a.m. followed by the championship final at 5 p.m. All games will be played at the Invista Centre.
