Any hope of heading into the playoffs with momentum on their side was extinguished last weekend as the Wellesley Applejacks dropped the final two games of the regular season. The team posted back-to-back losses on home ice against the Hagersville Hawks (6-4 on January 18) and the Ayr Centennials (8-1 the following day).
![Applejacks forward Troy Williams tries to hold off the Hagersville Hawks on January 18. The 6-4 score was the first of two losses for Wellesley last weekend[will sloan / the observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Post-WelApplejack.jpg)
“We just have to play a lot better than we did,” said coach Kevin Fitzpatrick, as he considered the team’s prospects in the upcoming playoffs. “The biggest thing for this team is to come play 60 minutes of hockey.”
In the January 18 game against Hagersville, the visiting team was strong out of the gate with goals at 2:56 and 4:57. Wellesley countered with two goals of their own in the first period – from Blake Hetherington at 11:09 (assists from Reid Denstedt and Tyler Eckert) and Steven Tait at 16:01 (assisted by Corey Way) – but Hagersville pushed their lead to 4-2 at 18:19.
Wellesley scored first in the second period at 2:30, courtesy of Eckert and an assist from Devon Wagner and Michael Pollice, followed by two goals from Hagersville at 10:04 and 10:52. Wagner scored one for Wellesley at 17:30, but with the Jacks unable to tie things up in the third period, Hagersville made its victory decisive with one last goal at 19:02.
But the Jacks collapsed on Saturday’s home game against Ayr, suffering a tough 8-1 defeat. Until the final minutes, Ayr totally dominated the game, scoring three goals in the first period (at 5:34, 6:44 and 12:18), two goals in the second (at 2:26 and 11:25), and three in the third (at 3:26, 5:42 and 14:53).
Finally, at 15:35, Josh Herd scored the Jacks’ sole goal, with an assist from Derek Lebold. Other statistics are not much cheerier: the Jacks managed only 17 shots on net compared to Ayr’s 42.
“I didn’t expect us to play as bad as we played Saturday,” admitted Fitzpatrick. “We just didn’t come ready. There isn’t one player that had a good game.
“At the end of the day,” he continued, “it was a nothing hockey game. My only disappointment is we had a good crowd, and we should have showed better as a team.”
The losses saw the team finish the season with a record of 23-13-2, the 48 points placing them third in the McConnell Conference.
The Jacks had a few days to regroup before entering the first round of the SOJHL playoffs Wednesday night against the Delhi Travellers. Fitzpatrick said his team’s play will have to improve to contend with what he expects to be a tough opponent.
“They had a rough first half but they’ve had a very good second half,” said Fitzpatrick of the rival team. “They made a coaching change, he’s an excellent coach. It’s going to be a tough round.”
Wellesley won Game 1 Wednesday night, defeating Delhi 5-4 in overtime.
