The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks battled back, but came up just short against the Ripley Wolves at the Davidson Centre in Kincardine on Saturday.
The Winterhawks did themselves no favours early in the game, taking three minor penalties against the 1st place Wolves before the game was five minutes old.
Nick Seiler used one of those power plays to make it 1-0 Ripley at 1:27 of the 1st period.
Eric Peicheff got the start for the Winterhawks and he was able to hold the powerful Ripley attack at bay for the remainder of the opening frame.
Ripley jumped on the Winterhawks again early in the 2nd period, as former pro Garrett Meurs scored twice, 1:09 apart, to give Ripley a 3-0 lead.
The Winterhawks battled back though, as Mike Rocca got them on the board with an unassisted goal at 11:07 of the 2nd period.
Bryan Kazarian followed it up 1:30 later, scoring his first of the season from Josh Deyell and Chad Schockenmaier to make it 3-2 Ripley, which is where things stood heading to the 3rd period.
The Winterhawks had a pair of power plays in the 3rd, but couldn’t find the equalizer, while penalty troubles and a Ripley empty netter put it away late, with a 4-2 final for the Wolves.
The loss snaps the Winterhawks six-game winning streak, dropping them to 9-5-1 on the season, sitting in 6th place in the jam-packed WOAA Sr. Hockey League standings.
They will be back on home ice after Christmas, hosting the Lucknow Lancers on Friday December 28th at 8:30 p.m. at The Plex.
The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks organization wishes all of our fans a safe and Merry Christmas.
