Tag Archives: Peter Crosby
Six in a row for Hawks
Six in a row for Hawks The Brantford Golden Eagles probably still don’t know what hit them. Well, the number of that train is six, because that’s what the Cambridge Winter Hawks winning streak is at after dumping the Golden Eagles 5-3 on Sunday during Pink at the Rink at the Galt Arena Gardens. Cambridge completed a three-game sweep on the weekend, beating Listowel 3-2 in overtime Friday and Owen Sound 7-0 on Saturday. The Winter Hawks wore pink jerseys to raise money and awareness for breast cancer on Sunday, but they had Brantford seeing red after coming back from being down 3-0 in the first with five unanswered goals. It was sweet revenge for the Winter Hawks, who coughed up a 2-0 third period lead to Brantford on Oct. 2, before losing 3-2. That seems like years ago now. “We’re on a little bit of a high now,” said Winter Hawks head coach Peter Crosby, who has seen his team start to look like contenders. “We’ve won six games and in that six-game stretch there’s been some big wins and this is a big win tonight. I go back to what I said before, it’s a 51-game season. There’s going to be some bumps along the way and there’s going to be some obstacles and it’s how well we respond to that.” Crosby admitted that Sunday was an example of that. As the Winter Hawks had a jittery first period, coupled by a rare of night by Lucas Machalski, to go down 3-0 after 20 minutes. “We didn’t have our best effort in the first period tonight,” said. “The guys answered the bell and came back in the second period, and finished them off in the third. “Every single kid in that dressing room is a character guy.” After Mike Riley, Jeff Swift and Ryan Blunt chased Machalski from the game, the Winter Hawks got some solid work from Brendan Gorecki, who extended his shutout streak to 105 minutes, 75 seconds. The comeback started just 47 seconds into the second period on a power play, when Gratton went top corner on a rebound past a diving Bryce O’Hagan. Three minutes later on another power play, Anthony Guido snuck in from the point to take a Tyler Snyder pass at the far side of the crease and bang it past O’Hagan. The Winter Hawks caught a break when Jeff Swift looked to get the puck in the net before it was pushed off by Michael Christou, but the goal was disallowed and there was no penalty on the play. That left the door open for Christian Barnard, who tied the game on a shorthanded breakaway. Christou got the eventual winner at 6:19 of the third, the Winter Hawks fourth straight power-play goal, when a clearing pass bounced off the side of his helmet and he beat the Brantford defence before snapping a shot over O’Hagan’s blocker. After having trouble solving O’Hagan in their last meeting, the Winter Hawks seemed to have his number on Sunday. “I think I can speak for all the boys, I think he looked like a block of Swiss cheese in that net. I’m not going to lie,” Christou said after the game. “But we had a slow start and then in the second and third period we battled back hard, and we deserved that win. Our team beat their talent.” Christou added that the team is starting to play the way they’re capable of. “I think we’re actually believing in the system now and we’re just going, and we’re having fun doing it. “It seems like we’re getting the job done. We’re not a finesse team so we just go out and do what we do night in and night out, and we’ve put together a pretty good streak now. You don’t get lucky winning six in a row.” Scot Mitchell finished off the scoring, taking a pretty drop pass from Gratton before sliding through the skates of O’Hagan. Against Listowel, Ryan Clarke, Christou and Guido scored for the Winter Hawks. Against Owen Sound, Andrew Coupland had two goals, while Clarke, Gratton, Christou, Snyder and Taylor Doering had one each. The Winter Hawks are in Stratford Friday at 7:30 p.m., before hosting Waterloo on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Galt Arena Gardens. Courtesy of the Bill Doucet at the Cambridge Times. See the original article here.
From the Times: Complete wins for Hawks
Complete wins for Hawks Tyler Snyder did all the little things right. The just turned 18-year-old Cambridge Winter Hawks forward was at his best during Saturday’s 6-0 win over the Kitchener Dutchmen, blocking shots, potting a goal and killing penalties. He also added a bang-on impersonation of former Winter Hawks Kyle Helms, knocking 30 seconds off a penalty by working the puck along the boards against three Dutchmen. But what will people remember most from Snyder’s night? Probably his failed attempt at an open net near the end of the second period when the Winter Hawks could have added on to their 4-0 lead. With Cody Gratton in the penalty box for roughing, the Dutchmen pulled goalie Mario Duscio for a 6-on-4 advantage to try to put a dent in the Winter Hawks’ lead. Snyder managed to get loose and was in a foot race with a Kitchener defenceman for the open net. He put on the brakes to go around him and the puck bounced away. You could practically hear the groans from the Winter Hawks bench. So what happened? “I don’t know,” Snyder said, trying to cover his laughter with the towel hanging around his neck. “I just turned my head and I just lost the puck. It skipped up; I’ll get it next time.” Even head coach Peter Crosby couldn’t resist taking a shot at Snyder. “Snydes had an awesome game. We just have to work on the open net shots for him,” he said with a smile. And there were grins all around the Cambridge dressing room as the team dominated the Dutchmen for 60 minutes and helped Lucas Machalski earn his first Junior B shutout. The fact that they also held onto the 4-0 lead, despite some deficiencies in that area a couple of weeks ago, also put the team in a good mood. “We put up a good performance and closed them out,” Snyder said. “That was something we weren’t doing earlier in the year, but we stepped it up and got the win.” Snyder certainly stepped up his game against Kitchener and his tenacious style of play, along with linemate Lawrence Pagnan, kept the Dutchmen at 0-for-5 on the power play. He’s also a player who knows his role and accepts it. “I’m just a fourth line guy and I just go out there and play defensively, try not to get scored on and my line tries to chip in every once in a while. It’s what I do to have my spot,” he said When Snyder can add to the offence, that’s a bigger bonus. He did get a hometown bounce on his goal, as he put the Winter Hawks up 2-0 when his shot on a 2-on-1 rush with Lawrence Pagnan was stopped, but deflected in off a Kitchener player. Ryan Clarke also scored twice for the Winter Hawks, while Gratton, Brandon Zimmerman and Christian Barnard – on a pretty passing play with Cameron Pentsa – had singles. The Winter Hawks took momentum from that game and used it to beat previously undefeated Elmira 5-3 on Sunday. Courtesy of Bill Doucet at the Cambridge Times. See the original article here!
Character
What a weekend! 3 games in less than 3 days seemingly. The guys came away with 2 wins and very close to a third win vs. London as well. One word describes their effort this past weekend and that word is….CHARACTER! In order for any team to be successful it must be able to show and demonstrate character. That word – character - comes in different forms.
On Ice Victories Don’t Always Show Up in the Stats
Last week, I spoke of the pre-season set-up and organization, as well as the engagement into the yearlong development process of a hockey program. This week I would like to touch upon my thoughts on how I see the start to our process is going with the Winter Hawks.
From the Times: Hawks never gave up
Hawks never gave up Two losses not as bad as it seems for Winter Hawks It’s a weekend the Cambridge Winter Hawks will lock away in the vault. Though they went pointless with a 7-5 loss to Stratford on Friday and were defeated 4-1 by Elmira on Saturday, the games produced something just as valuable for the Winter Hawks – they learned they could play with the best teams in the league. Considered the two top squads in the Midwestern Conference, Stratford and Elmira threw everything they had at Cambridge, only to see the Winter Hawks fight them right to the end and keep the games close. And the Winter Hawks learned what it will take to beat top level teams.
Winter Hawks announce new head coach
Winter Hawks get No. 1 choice Courtesy of Bill Doucet Three time’s a charm for Peter Crosby. After applying for the Cambridge Winter Hawks head coaching job the last two seasons – the Winter Hawks instead took Ryan D’Arcy, then Pat Conklin – general manager Ken Jeysman approached the Paris resident this year to take over behind the bench after the team has gone through four coaches in the last two Junior B campaigns. In fact, one of those coaches was Jeysman, who took over last season for Conklin prior to the Christmas break. Before Jeysman could hire Crosby, he had to fire himself. “Yeah, I didn’t like the guy,” Jeysman said, tongue firmly planted in cheek. In all seriousness though, the Winter Hawks coaching job has been anything but a laughing matter since the departure of Greg Bignell after the 2008-09 season. Jeysman said he is looking for long-term at the position and has confidence in Crosby, who brings an impressive resume to town. The 42 year old was assistant coach with the Brantford Golden Eagles in 2008 under head coach and close friend Jay Wells, before winning coach of the year in 2009 with the Junior C Paris Mounties. After that, Crosby moved to women’s professional hockey, where he coached Mississauga two seasons ago and was interim head coach for Brampton last season. “He was the guy I wanted right from the beginning,” Jeysman said. “He’s technically sound, he’s organized, he’s a local guy and he makes it all work. “We want some stability. So here’s a guy that’s been working his way up, hard. He’s a stabile, family-type guy, so I think he will be around for a bit.” Crosby said the decision to leave Brampton wasn’t an easy one, admitting he had a “really good gig going on”, but the drive was getting to be too much and he felt that it was the right time to move back to junior hockey. “I really enjoyed it, but coaching the guys, coaching at a high level like Junior B, coaching probably one of the storied franchises in the Junior B loop in Cambridge and coaching in the backyard of my adopted hometown is pretty exciting.” A teacher at Paris District High School since 1994 and founder of the Hockey Canada Skill Academy in 2005, Crosby says he already has a plan in place to get the Winter Hawks back to a championship calibre team. “It’s the approach of making sure we’re sound technically, and that leads into being tactically sound towards our system,” he said. “Without giving away too much, but people will figure us out quickly I’m sure, is that we’re going to be aggressive in all three zones. But that doesn’t mean total offensive-minded. It means being aggressive in the three zones defensively, and that’s going to create offensive chances.” He added that the team is also going to work specifically on special teams this season, with an emphasis of trying a different penalty killing system that is different than most Junior B teams play. But that also comes from working hard in every zone on the ice. “You go back to Bigs (Greg Bignell) and he was coaching in the league when Jay was the head coach of Brantford and I was his assistant, and you could see how his players bought into his technique, his systems and his plays, and he was a very sound coach, he said. “The whole mantra of the year is going to be buy into the process and enjoy the process, because where we start better not be where we finish.” Visit Cambridge Times for the original article, courtesy of Bill Doucet.
