The male U18 Pembina Valley Hawks closed out their regular season this past weekend by sweeping a two game set with the Norman Northstars.
The end result was Pembina Valley finishing in seventh place at 27-19-1-1 for 56 points, and it leaves the Hawks with the tough task of likely facing the second-place Winnipeg Wild in the first round of the playoffs. At press time, game one was tentatively set for Saturday in Winnipeg.
Pembina Valley began their final week of the regular season with a crazy 10-7 loss Feb. 17 to the Interlake Lightning in Teulon.
Interlake held period leads of 2-1 and 6-2 at the intermissions. That lead grew to 7-2 early in the third period, but then a five-minute penalty for head contact proved costly to the Lightning as the Hawks rattled off four straight power play goals. That was as close as Pembina Valley could get from there.
Ocean Fehr had a hat trick while Tyson Pethybridge chipped in with a pair of goals for the Hawks, who also got markers from Carson Hiebert and Mason Leite. Shots on goal were 63-45 in favour of the Hawks, who fired off 38 shots in the third period alone.
Game one with Norman Saturday saw the Hawks breeze to period leads of 4-0 and 8-1 on their way to the 8-2 victory.
Hiebert had a hat trick while Cole Secord added two. Singles came from Leite, Caden McMahon, and Ragnar Gillis.
The Hawks outshot the Northstars 46-37, with Koen Bleznuk earning the win in net with 35 saves.
Gillis led the Hawks in game two Sunday with a hat trick as Pembina Valley took period leads of 1-0 and 3-1 on their way to the 5-1 win. Fehr also scored along with a goal from Logan Delichte. Brody Peters made 28 saves with Pembina Valley holding a 38-29 edge in shots on goal.
The Hawks were relatively competitive with the Wild through the regular season with two of the four matchups being one-goal games, though Winnipeg won three of the four.
