Luke Pither scored twice to lead the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks to a 5-2 victory over the Shallow Lake Crushers on Friday night at The Plex.
Pither opened the scoring five minutes into the game, cleaning up in front of Crushers netminder Allan Menary, with assists to Miles MacLean and Medric Mercier.
Shallow Lake answered back minutes later to even the game at 1-1.
The Winterhawks continued to control the pace of the game and eventually got the lead back.
Mike Fiegehen walked in off the wing and snapped a low shot through Menary to give the Winterhawks a 2-1 lead at 13:31, with assists to Curtis Johnston and Justin Donnelly.
The bulk of the play in the second period was firmly in the Crushers zone, but Menary held the fort for Shallow Lake until a Josh Deyell point shot was tipped in front by Kevin McCallion, who recorded his first goal as a Winterhawk to make it 3-1 Hawks at 11:08. Brock Pinnell also assisted on the goal.
The Crushers moved to within one early in the 3rd period, but Pither put the insurance marker past Menary at 7:03 when he got in alone and picked the top corner. Assists went to MacLean and Mercier.
Jay Thomson added one more for good measure when he tipped in a point shot from Chad Jones at 12:21, with Mike Johnstone also assisting to make it 5-2.
Eric Peicheff made 18 saves in the Winterhawks net for the win, as the Winterhawks outshot Shallow Lake, 39-20.
McCallion was named The Wismer House Player of the Game for recording his first goal, which turned out to be the game winning goal.
The win gives the Winterhawks sole possession of 4th place in the WOAA Sr. Hockey League standings, with 23 points.
They remain one point back of 3rd-place Ripley, who defeated 2nd-place Minto on Friday night.
The Winterhawks are two points behind Minto, and have a game-in-hand and currently hold tiebreakers on both Ripley and Minto.
The Winterhawks return to the ice tonight [Saturday] in Durham as the Winterhawks take on the Thundercats, who enter the game tied for 5th place at 21 points, after dropping a 3-2 decision in Shelburne on Friday night.
Full Boxscore