Havre Ice Hawks hockey finish fifth at state tournament

The Havre Ice Hawks high school hockey team has had to do a lot of growing this season. After losing three seniors to injury through the year, the Ice Hawks only had two seniors and one junior on their team heading into the MAHA State Tournament in Billings this past weekend. Despite their youth, the Ice Hawks won two of their three games to finish fifth in the tournament.

"We did alright given that we're a young team," Havre head coach Chase Hanson said. "I would say that the weekend went well."

The Ice Hawks started the tournament on a positive note with an 8-7 win over the Helena Big Horns Thursday afternoon. Havre started the game strong with goals from Austin Boyce and Kaine Black to take a 2-0 lead in the first period. But back-to-back goals from Brooklyn Pancoast tied the game for Helena.

The Ice Hawks retook the lead with another goal from Black. Decker Hanson then closed out the opening period with a pair of goals to give Havre a 5-2 lead to end the period. Most of the second period went by without either team scoring. Michael Emge was able to break through to extend Havre's lead to 6-2. Boyce then scored his second goal of the game to give Havre a 7-2 lead late in the second period.

"We were moving the puck," Hanson said about the second period. "There were some pretty awesome centering passes so there's a lot of net when those happen and we were able to put the pucks away."

However, the Big Horns did not back down. Shay Schroeder scored to cut the deficit to 7-3. The Ice Hawks responded with a goal from Ciaran Courtnage to give Havre an 8-3 lead to end the period. But the Big Horns roared back in the third period to make it a game. Cade Holland and William Carroll each scored two goals in the final period to cut the deficit to one goal. But the Ice Hawks were able to hold on in the final moments to win their opening game of the weekend.

"We did come back and play our basics," Hanson said about the defensive effort in the closing minutes. "We ended up playing a lot of the last two or three minutes in our zone. We just tried to take up as much of the center of the ice as possible and force everything out wide and it ended up working for us."

The Ice Hawks were not as fortunate Friday as they lost, 5-3, to the Billings Bulls. The Bulls jumped on the Ice Hawks with three quick goals to start the game. Jensen Weatherford scored first to get Billings on the board. After a goal from Elijah Nickisch, Weatherford scored again to make it 3-0.

"They were just able to get a couple quick breaks," Hanson said about Billings early in the game.

The Ice Hawks were able to respond. Boyce scored to get Havre on the board and then Emge scored to cut the deficit to 3-2 to end the first period. The second period was mostly a defensive affair, but Nickisch broke through for a goal to give Billings a 4-2 lead.

Early in the third period, Boyce scored again to cut the deficit to 4-3. But Havre was unable to break through on offense the rest of the way. Late in the game, Ian Laib scored a goal to secure the win for the Bulls.

The Ice Hawks capped off the tournament on Sunday morning with a 6-2 win over the Great Falls Americans. With a chance to finish fifth in the tournament, the Ice Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period. Jared Rosgaard scored first to get Havre on the scoreboard. Later in the period, Emge scored to extend the lead.

"We went back to moving that puck around like we started the tournament with," Hanson said about their strong start. "We had a couple of great passes come out from below the goal line to somebody in front of the net that they just put in the back of the net. They were having a lot of fun in that first period."

Courtnage and Jacob Herring kept things rolling with a pair of goals to end the first period. The Americans tried to get back in it in the second period as Jase Troyer scored a pair of goals to cut the deficit to 4-2. But Herring scored again in the second period to extend the lead. Courtnage then scored again in the third period to put the game away for the Ice Hawks.

Boyce finished the weekend with 10 points to lead Havre. Over the course of three games, Boyce led the Ice Hawks with four goals and six assists. Emge and Courtnage each scored three goals across the weekend and Herring recorded four assists in the tournament. Goalie Clara Holland started all three games for Havre and recorded a .867 save percentage in the tournament.

With their first year of varsity now over, the Ice Hawks head into the offseason. Hanson believes his young roster grew up and hopes to see that lead to more success next year.

"Our young guys held strong and grew a lot and grew faster throughout this year," Hanson said. "We'll go into next season with only one senior on the roster so we'll just start building those base blocks of a winning culture of a hard hitting and fast team."