EXETER – The Exeter Hawks and Lucan Irish did battle Friday night, the last time they'll face each other this season.
With perhaps their best 60-minute effort of the year, the Hawks ground their way to a 9-2 win, and the outcome was never really in doubt.
Lucan's Chris Van Kasteren scored the first goal of the game 10:29 into the first period, a power play effort assisted by Joel Nother.
The Hawks bounced back with three unanswered goals over a two-minute stretch late in the frame, however, leaving the score 3-1 after 20 minutes.
Jake Jeffrey, Brent Rae and Justin Anstett each scored during that stretch for the Hawks.
Exeter scored a pair of power play goals in the second period to go ahead 5-1, with Dave Geoffrey and Blair Parsons each beating Lucan goalie Al Cousins.
Lucan's Coltin Durnin scored a power play goal of his own with 2:02 left in the period, leaving the score 5-2.
Hawks players Justin Reid, Matt Dawdy, Steve Gingerich and Tim Burtch each scored in the third period, while the Irish were unable to beat Hawks goalie Greg Dodds.
Dodds had 18 saves in the victory, while Cousins had 40 in the loss.
"Exeter’s really improved this year," said Irish co-head coach John Medd in an interview. "They went out and played hard for 60 minutes and won all the battles and put the puck in the net."
Indeed, Hawks coach Jeff MacLean said he thinks the game saw his team's most complete effort so far this season.
"We had good efforts from all the lines, all the D," he said. "It seemed like one of those games where everything for 60 minutes, at least, all came together.
"We had balanced scoring from all different lines, and everybody was contributing. It was a really good sign and hopefully we continue that. Things are kind of coming together at the right time, I hope."
Medd said he thought his team played a strong first period but gave a nod to the Hawks defence, saying Exeter was bringing the puck out "faster than we could put it in (their defensive zone)."
That's something MacLean said was stressed in practice last week, and in a couple of recent games.
"We in the past have given up our blue line, meaning that we're allowing teams to get into our end," he said. "We've really been putting an emphasis on not letting them in and stepping up on the blue line to make things a whole lot easier for ourselves.
"We did that on Friday, and I think that paid off."
The Hawks have a stretch of difficult games to close the season, playing the Mt. Brydges Bulldogs twice and the North Middlesex Stars and Delhi Travelers once.
Mt. Brydges and Delhi are tied for the best record in the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League this season, while North Middlesex is second-best and the defending champion.
The difficulty of the schedule was made "kind of by design," MacLean said, so the team will be as sharp as possible heading into the playoffs.
"We're going to use those games as measuring sticks to see where we stand as far as the top teams in the league go, and playing those teams it's easier to expose our weaknesses," he said.
"It's easier to see what we need to work on, as opposed to playing weaker teams. We're going to know after these remaining games what our weaknesses are and what we're going to need to work on in order to be successful in the playoffs."
The Hawks have eight regular season games left, the next of which is Friday against Mt. Brydges at the South Huron Recreation Centre. The game is set to start at 8:30 p.m.
Irish push Stars to the brink
The Irish are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs but showed in a 7-6 loss to North Middlesex Jan. 13 they're still capable of giving top teams a run for their money.
As is their wont of late, Lucan jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, thanks to a Dustin McTaggart goal 6:28 into the first period.
North Middlesex answered with two goals of their own in the first period and added three more in the second. Van Kasteren also scored for Lucan, leaving the score 5-2 after 40 minutes.
Lucan came alive in the third period, scoring four goals to North Middlesex's two and nearly forcing overtime.
Irish forward Tyler Medd had two goals while Van Kasteren and Patrick Van Boxmeer each had one.
“We ran out of time," said Irish co-head coach Paul McTaggart. "We took it to them (in the third period). We didn’t sit back. We went right at them and we got some good shots on net and some good goals ... everybody dug in and it was a good third (period).
Lucan also hosted the SOJHL All-Star Game Saturday night, with Irish players Tyler Medd and Dustin McTaggart representing the Irish on the Yeck Conference team. Both Medd and McTaggart scored en route to a 12-4 win over the McConnell Conference.
Hawks forward Jake Jeffrey had two goals for the Yeck, while defenceman Tim Bilcke had one assist.
The Yeck MVP was Mt. Brydges' Brendan Heffernan, while the McConnell MVP was Reid Morrison of the St. George Dukes.