Chris Peterson
Havre Daily News
cpeterson@havredailynews.com
After an up-and-down start to the 2005-06 season, the Havre Ice Hawks put a consistent weekend of hockey together at just the right time.
The Ice Hawks went up against some solid competition from all over the Northwest and wound up finishing third at a tournament in Butte two weeks ago. The Ice Hawks went 3-1.
The Ice Hawks opened the tournament against Spokane and they rode the wave of a great start to a 7-1 victory.
Austin Small jump-started a big first period for the Ice Hawks as he scored the first goal, then Tyler Boyce added a goal to make it 2-0. Todd Roe added a goal and an assist in the first period, and his goal gave them a commanding 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
The Ice Hawks would continue their onslaught of goals as Michael Erickson made it 4-0 in the second period. Bradley Hanson scored an unassisted goal to push the lead to five, and Todd Roe continued his great night with his second goal to make it 6-0 at the end of the second period.
After their 7-1 stomping of Spokane, the Ice Hawks set their sights on Bozeman and got a much tougher game.
Josh Morse scored two first-period goals as the Ice Hawks jumped ahead early in an effort to suffocate the Bozeman skaters.
Roe continued his strong play in the tournament as he scored another goal in the first period that ultimately gave the Ice Hawks a 3-0 advantage after the first period.
Bozeman added a goal later on in the game, but the Ice Hawks used solid goaltending from David Zentmire, who accumulated 20 saves on the day, to hang on for a 3-1 victory that put them in the semifinals.
The Ice Hawks then found a rather large bump in their road to the championship game in the name of Jackson, Wyo.
The Ice Hawks dug themselves a hole early on as Jackson got goals from Brian Cain and Ian Gonnelle to give that team a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period.
Roe scored his fourth goal of the tournament as he pulled the Ice Hawks to within one at 2-1 with a goal about midway through the second period. But five minutes later Jackson was back up by two after another Cain score.
Cain added another goal to complete a hat trick and give Jackson a commanding 4-1 lead heading into the final period.
Tyler Boyce renewed some hope as he scored to make it a two-goal game at 4-2, but Cain added another goal to give him four on the night. Jackson would add one more for a final score of 6-2.
In the third-place game, the Ice Hawks faced the Ogden Wildcats, who made the trek from Utah to compete in the tournament.
Havre sent them home a little disappointed, as the Ice Hawks pulled out a dramatic 5-4 overtime victory when Austin Small, assisted by William Schilling, scored the winning goal in the extra frame.
The Ice Hawks also got two more goals from Roe, giving him a team-high six goals for the tournament. Josh Morse scored a goal in the first period to get the Ice Hawks on the board and then scored the goal that eventually put the Ice Hawks into overtime. Mark Larson also allowed the Ice Hawks to have a chance to win as he notched 21 saves in goal.
