EXETER – The Exeter Hawks ended their regular season with a pair of home games on the weekend, beating the Lambeth Lancers 13-3 Friday night and losing 6-5 to the Thamesford Trojans Sunday night.
Neither game had any bearing on the standings or playoff picture, with the Hawks already assured third place in the SOJHL’s Yeck Conference and a first-round matchup against the Mt. Brydges Bulldogs.
Friday’s game was preceded by a brief ceremony honouring the 2003-04 Hawks team, which won the most recent of the franchise’s five Ontario championships.
As previously reported, the Hawks have honoured each of their Ontario championship teams with similar ceremonies this season.
The game started well for the Hawks, who scored the first two goals of the game, courtesy of Jake Jeffrey and Steve Gingerich.
Jeffrey’s goal was his 100th as a Hawk, putting him in elite company.
Lambeth came back to tie the game 2-2 late in the frame, but Hawks forward Matt Dawdy put Exeter ahead again with 1:32 remaining, and his squad didn’t look back.
The Hawks scored six unanswered goals in the second period, surrendered one with 8:30 gone in the third period, then added four more goals for an emphatic win.
Dawdy, Brent Rae (2), Justin Anstett, Jeffrey and Jordan Brohman each scored Hawks goals in the second period, while Tim Burtch, Brohman, Dawdy and Justin Reid scored for Exeter in the third.
The Hawks outshot Lambeth 57 to 32 in the game, with Gregg Dodds going the distance in goal for Exeter.  
“It seems lately that we give up leads, although we get them back, it seems,” said Hawks head coach Jeff MacLean in an interview.
“We didn’t like how we were giving leads up, so we just stressed sticking to our game plan and knew that they were a little bit short. We could kind of sense that they weren’t really into the game.
“But we had to stick with our plan, and we couldn’t play to the level of Lambeth. We had to exceed that.
Sunday’s game also started well for the Hawks, who built a 4-1 lead early in the second period but fell apart in the final half of the game.
Justin Reid, Jeffrey and Scott Muirhead each scored in the first period for the Hawks, while Reid scored his second 3:19 into the third to give Exeter a three-goal advantage.
Thamesford scored on a power play with 10:28 left in the second, then scored on a power play roughly two minutes later, making the score 4-3 Hawks.
Dawdy scored with 4:42 left in the second period, and Thamesford added one of its own with 4.9 seconds left in the frame, which ended 5-4 in the Hawks’ favour.
Thamesford tied the game 5:34 into the third period and scored the winner with 10:04 remaining.
“We were very disappointed with the outcome of that game,” said MacLean. “We were also really disappointed with our effort ... it was our last game of the season,  and we wanted to finish strong.”
MacLean said though the game really meant nothing, the Hawks aim to win every game and want to be as well-prepared for the playoffs as they can, and “just didn’t have the effort” against Thamesford.
The playoffs begin for the Hawks Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mt. Brydges and will feature the Yeck Conference’s second and third-place squads.
“We’re going to have to play some of our best hockey of the year (to win),” MacLean said. “Mt. Brydges is a real high-octane team. They’ve got a lot of offence, and it has to be paid attention to.
“We think that we can score a lot of goals too. We’ve got some offence, but we’ve just got to balance that with some good defence. We’ve got to want it more than them.”
MacLean added the Hawks need to do the things necessary to win – “little things like blocking shots and backchecking and all those traits that ... that good teams need to have in order to succeed,” he said.
The first home game of the best-of-seven series will be Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at the South Huron Recreation Centre, with Game 3 Feb. 27 in Mt. Brydges at 7:30 p.m. and Game 4 Feb. 28 in Exeter, also at 7:30 p.m.
Jeffrey hits century mark
Jake Jeffrey now has 102 goals as a Hawk, a feat few players in franchise history have attained.
Jeffrey is among the team’s top scorers this season, and is in his fourth and final year as a Hawk.
“It’s a pretty great honour,” he said of scoring his 100th goal. “Not many people get to do it, I guess. It kind of shows the Hawks’ dedication to me, in keeping me around so long, and the consistency of the guys I’ve been playing around.
“It’s kind of cool. It took me awhile to get there – I was at 99 for about five games, but it feels good.”
MacLean said the team is happy for Jeffrey, adding that the 5’9” centre has been a long-time contributor and ambassador for the Hawks.
“He’s a great guy, and we were really happy that he was able to reach that milestone,” MacLean said. “He’s contributed a lot to this team over the years, and it’s good to see him rewarded with a milestone like that.”