Forward Conner Merriman had a good night, scoring three goals for a hat trick on Tuesday.
Six different Ice Hawks contributed in Tuesday night’s 8-2 winning effort for Delta over the Grandview Steelers at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
Conner Merriman led the way for Delta on Tuesday night with a hat trick, getting his goal total double digits with 10 on the season.
Delta took advantage of an early power play, winning the faceoff and sending the puck up high to Carson Hemenway. He cycled around to captain Alec Scouras, who found Dalton MacGillivray, a common pairing this season. MacGillivray one-timed the pass into the back of the net for his 21st of the year.
Three minutes later, the Hawks doubled their lead. Cameron Lee cleared the zone, finding Reegan House on the Grandview blue line. House was joined by Nico Marini in the middle, and with a quick flip pass, Marini made a move around Steelers goalie Ronin Geraghty and easily slid the puck home.
The power play was working well for the Hawks in the first, going 2-for-2, as they got another man-advantage goal, this one from Carson Merriman. Merriman chipped the rebound from a Carson Hemenway point shot past Geragthy for a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes.
Conner Merriman got the Hawks off to a flying start in the second, taking the puck after the faceoff win by Dominic Passalacqua-Main and doing it all himself, scoring high glove side just eight seconds into the middle frame.
The Steelers marked a power play goal of their own later in the second period, with some tic-tac-toe passing ending up on the stick of Luke Mongrain in the slot, who beat Merik Erickson.
Minutes later though, Conner Merriman restored the Ice Hawks’ four-goal lead, stealing the puck from a Steelers defender and going on a breakaway, beating Geraghty again for his second of the game.
In the third, the Steelers netted their second goal of the game just over a minute in. They were able to keep in an attempted Hawks clear, and while Erickson made a nice save to stop the initial attack, he was unable to get back into position to stop the second shot from Aaron Mak.
Conner Merriman completed the hat trick just minutes later, going into the Steelers’ zone to forecheck on the penalty kill. He intercepted a pass and quickly snapped it past Geraghty for his third of the night.
Later in the frame with the Ice Hawks starting another power play, Carson Bigras had the puck up high after the faceoff win and he went cross-ice to Passalacqua-Main. Main took a shot and Geraghty slid across to make the save, but Milne was on the doorstep for the rebound and punched the puck into an empty net.
Hemenway scored the final goal of the night, with MacGillivray starting the quick pass sequence to Scouras, who one-touched it to Hemenway, who ripped a one-timer from the right point for the eighth goal for Delta.
