This past weekend the Hawks played both a home and away game, hosting the Mitchell Hawks on Sunday, losing a shocker in shootout fashion, and visiting the Kincardine Bulldogs Friday defeating them 5-3.
On Friday, the Hawks travelled to Kincardine to face off against the fifth place Bulldogs, but Walkerton had to fight to achieve their 19th win of the season.
The Hawks opened the game up with a strong first period effort concluding the period with a 2-0 lead. Scoring goals were Eric Lekun and Andrew Graham with the assist going to forward Haden Campbell.
In the second period with three minutes remaining Adam Alexander was awarded a penalty shot due to being tripped up on a breakaway by a Bulldogs defender. Alexander approached the net on his backhand and raised the puck into the upper part of the net, widening the margin to three goals entering the third period.
A little over three minutes in the third, Dylan Bults scored, making the game seem out of reach for the Bulldogs. However, Kincardine persevered and scored the next two goals splitting the lead in half. Lekun put a stop to any late game comebacks, as he scored on the powerplay on a pass from Campbell and Alexander. The Bulldogs would score once more but that is all that Kincardine had, concluding the game with a Walkerton victory.
Keegan Woodman made 32 saves for the win, while Kincardine’s Gatlin Burt made 27 saves in the loss.
The game against Mitchell on Sunday was a back and forth game, that required more than overtime to determine a winner of the match.
Campbell opened the scoring two minutes into the game on a hard pass from Drew Davidson and Eric Lekun. Mitchell answered shortly after scoring two goals in six minutes, with one on the powerplay.
Defencemen Andrew Graham scored a shorthanded marker to open the second on a pass from Lekun and Andy Mitchell.
The Mitchell team would score the next four unanswered goals to make the score 6-2 concluding the second period.
Entering the third, Walkerton replied early on the powerplay when Davidson scored on a pass from Campbell and Lekun. Mitchell would come back with a goal making it 7-3. Thus sparked Walkerton’s attack, and scored four unanswered goals by Lekun, Bujold, Campbell, and Mitchell with seven minutes remaining in the game.
The game was tied through regulation, and went into five minutes of extra time, which proved scoreless, thus forcing a shootout.
Lekun and Alexander missed on both attempts. Mitchell took the odds away from Walkerton as they scored two out of their three shots, making a third shooter for Walkerton impossible, losing the game 8-7, snapping their six-game steak.
Goalie Jeff Flagler took the shootout loss with 36 saves in 65 minutes. Taylor VanBoekel made 28 saves for the win.
This is the Hawks’  second overtime or shootout loss and maintain their first place lead over the Wingham Ironmen by nine points and have three games in hand.  
Hawks veteran defencemen Jordan Turcotte attached most of the success to uniting together as a team.
“Players buying into various roles, from first-line to fourth-line players, it helps us come together knowing we are all there for the same reason, which is doing what we need to in order to win,” Turcotte said.
The Hawks will host both the Goderich Sailors and the Kincardine Bulldogs this weekend on back-to-back nights on Friday (8:30 p.m.) and ?Saturday (6:30 p.m.).