Golden Hawks on brink of elimination

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on March 11, 2022.

The Lethbridge Val Matteoti Golden Hawks U15AAA team are hoping to live to fight another day in Game 2 of their best-of-three second round series against the first place Airdrie Extreme on home ice tonight.
“We can play with Airdrie,” said Geoff Oster, Golden Hawks head coach.
“Can we sustain three periods of playing with Airdrie is the question. Airdrie is a very big team—they’re very good, they’re well coached and they’re the No.1 team in the South for a reason. That being said, we have nothing to lose , we have everything to gain from this. They have more to lose in this situation than we do if we come and give them a game. So if we can put it together the way we know these boys can play for 60 minutes, we maybe able to make them work for what they want.”
Oster feels his eighth-seeded Golden Hawks match Airdrie with their speed.
“If we can transition quickly then we can put some pressure on their defence core,” he said.
” I think we do have that abiility when we do have the puck deep in the offensive zone, we have the ability to create opportunities for ourselves—we’ve shown that in the past.”
The possible elimination game comes after the Golden Hawks were shutout 6-0 by Airdrie on Wednesday night.
“Last (Wednesday) night’s game was definitely different from the other series,” said Oster.”We did not get the start we wanted and it was the first 12 to 14 minutes that actually hurt us the most. The first 12 to 14 minutes of the first period was where Airdrie did all of their damage. The other part of the game, you know what, we woke up in the second period and we were able to compete. If we didn’t have to count that first period it was a 2-0 hockey game.”
Oster said the team prepared well for this series.
“We had two very good practices,” he said.
“The video that we did with our team was what was needed. We gave them the right information. The problem was we didn’t execute how we wanted to.”
Game 2 is set for 7:15 p.m. at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
Game 3 would be played back in Airdrie on Sunday if the Golden Hawks are able to extend the series.

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