Lauchlin Elder lifted the Walkerton Hawks to a 10-1 victory with a hat trick against the Hanover Barons.

Elder got on the scoresheet 10:13 into the first period. He then added goals at 36 seconds into the second and at 4:08 into the third.

Hanover trailed by one after the first period, but Walkerton went into the second intermission with a 4-0 lead and never looked back.

The Hawks' offense rang up 43 shots on the Barons' net. Walkerton outdid its season average for goals scored. The Hawks average 5.3 goals per game.

Walkerton also got points from Drew Davidson, who also tallied two goals and two assists and Austin Russell, who also finished with one goal and one assist. Joel Bowman also scored for Walkerton. More assists for Walkerton came via Brooks Nelthorpe and Calvin Penney, who contributed one a piece and Jordan Turcotte, Jay Thomson, David Gallo, and Brett Coulson, who each chipped in two.

Hanover managed to stay out of the box better than usual, racking up one minor for two minutes in penalty time. The Barons finished below its season average of 24.0 penalty minutes per game.

Trevor Fleming made 23 saves for Walkerton on 24 shots. The Hawks incurred four minutes in penalty time with two minors. Ben Errington recorded 33 saves for Hanover. The Barons registered zero goals on two power play opportunities.