Four goals in the third period wasn’t enough for the Wingham Ironmen Friday night as they fell just short in a 6-5 loss to the Mitchell Hawks after being down 5-1.
Wingham coach Chad Haggitt said the team started well and took the game to the visitors, but the Ironmen have to figure out they can’t take shifts or periods off if they want to be the team that won in Hanover and Kincardine.
The loss gives the Ironmen 31 points, one ahead of Kincardine, with Walkerton in first at 46 points, Hanover in second with 41 and Mitchell holding down third with 40.
Friday night, the Ironmen opened the scoring early with a goal from Adam Corbett at 2:29 of the first, but Mitchell took over with five straight goals. After taking the lead, Haggitt said the Ironmen took some penalties and lost the momentum.
The Hawks had a 2-1 lead after the first period and extended their lead to 4-1 with goals in the second and third period before the Ironmen started their comeback.
Chris Corbett got Wingham started at 3:37 of the third and Adam added his second of the game three minutes later to make it 5-3.
Wade Stephenson got the Ironmen within one goal at 8:07 of the period, but the Hawks responded with what would prove to be the winning goal at 13:43 before Steve Kerr made it a 6-5 final at 18:12.
The Ironmen were outshot 31-24 and were three for five on the power play, while the Hawks also had three power-play goals on nine chances with the man advantage.
With the gap between the Ironmen and Mitchell at nine points, Haggitt said the focus in the final games before the playoffs will be to stay ahead of Kincardine and maintain home ice advantage.
The Ironmen have two games this weekend with Hanover visiting Friday night at 8 p.m. before Wingham visits Kincardine Saturday at 7 p.m.