The Elora Mohawks maintained their spot atop the Midwest division after beating both the Oakville Buzz and St. Catharines Spartans on the road.
Dan Keane led the Elora attack Friday in Oakville with seven points, while Ricky McGarr picked up the win as the Tribe outlasted the Buzz 10-8. Two nights later, Elora rallied from a two-goal deficit after two periods to hand the Spartans a 10-4 loss.
In Oakville, Elora found itself leading 4-2 after the first period. Matt Hummel, Mark Pfohl, Jake Weidner and Evan Benham tallied to give the Tribe a two-goal lead going into the second, but Oakville erased that advantage after 3:32 in the middle frame. The teams went back and forth and finished the period tied 7-7.
Elora took control of the game early in the third period, as Brady Heseltine scored twice while Keane added his second goal of the game to give the Mohawks a three-goal cushion with just over six minutes to play. Oakville scored once more against McGarr, but the Tribe held on for the win.
Keane (2,5), Weidner (2,2), Hummel (2,1), Pfohl (1,2), Heseltine (2,1), Benham (1,1), McGarr (2 assists), Kyle Dobbie and Todd Scarrow (1 assist each) finished with points.
At St. Catharines two nights later, Elora found itself down 3-0 after 22 minutes of play. Scott Cook and Weidner brought the Mohawks back to within a goal in the later half of the second period, but Dan Foote's powerplay goal with 3:29 to play in the second put the Spartans ahead 4-2 going into the final frame.
Elora then assumed command in the third, routing their hosts to the tune of an 8-0 score over the final 20 minutes of play. Dobbie got the Mohawks going, while Kyle Goss and Heseltine scored 22 seconds apart to put the Tribe in front for the first time. Dobbie, Cook, Heseltine, Benham and Hummel added successive goals to put the game out of reach in favour of the Mohawks.
Dobbie (2,2) led the attack for Elora, while Goss (1,2), Cook (2,1), Weidner (1,2), and Heseltine (2,1) each finished with three points. Hummel (1,1), Brock Harper (2 assists) and Benham (1,1) added two points apiece, while John Griffiths, Alex Gleeson, Scarrow, Devon Mantler, Joe Battie, Jordan Denny and Dan Humphrey (1 assist each) also contributed to the win.
Mohawks head coach Dean George was pleased with the work his team did in coming back to beat the Spartans, noting that the offence seems to be spreading out in the manner he had hoped for after the team's opening weekend.
"I think we're gelling a bit more on offence, and you can see that by the fact that the scoring was a bit more spread out," he said. "Against the Spartans, I like that we didn't panic when we found ourselves down after two periods. The boys just stuck to the systems we have in place and we were able to come back."
George complimented both McGarr and Humphrey for their work in goal, saying that both found themselves with difficult tasks over the weekend's slate of games.
"We took a lot of lazy penalties Friday night (in Oakville), and Ricky came up big for us when we needed him to," he said. "They're a good, fast team and we had a hard time getting started. He looked good in there and he came up big in the third period when we really needed him to. He didn't give up that 'next' goal that can be a backbreaker. And Dan was great in St. Catharines - he really held us in it for two periods until the offence got on track."
The penalty problems are ones that George attributes to a lack of proper conditioning, and he's intent on getting that problem rectified as soon as he can. With a slew of tough games coming up for Elora, he knows they can't keep taking stupid penalties and expect to keep winning.
"We talked about the penalty situation on Friday before we played Oakville, and I told our guys that we're really good five on five but we can't keep taking these stupid, lazy penalties," he said. "If that keeps up, I told them that I won't hesitate to make changes."
Elora welcomes the Welland Warlords to town on Saturday, May 8, and then heads to Guelph on Sunday, May 9, at 2:30 p.m. for a game that kicks off a stretch where Elora plays divisional games in five of their next six contests. The tilt with Welland has George's focus for now, and he thinks this will be a good early test to show the Tribe right where they find themselves.
"They're a big, physical team with some really good goaltending, and I know this will be a good test for us," he said. "We saw some glimpses of the team we want to become this past weekend, transitioning teams with our defence. If we can do that this weekend against a couple of really tough teams, that will be pretty encouraging for us."
Game time against the Warlords in Elora is set for 7 p.m.