In the final game of the season, the Ice Hawks both finished on a high note and got revenge for Tuesday’s overtime loss to the White Rock Whalers by scoring seven unanswered goals for a 7-3 win at Centennial Arena Saturday night.
Nathan Bran and Justin Osborne gave the Whalers a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes, and Jeevin Bal scored early in the second to make it 3-0, but after that, it was all Ice Hawks. Zach Shaughnessy made 22-straight saves after allowing the three Whalers goals.
Payton Hu got the ball rolling with the Hawks’ first goal less than a minute after White Rock took the 3-0 lead to make it 3-1, his twenty-fifth of the year and the first of five Delta goals in the period.
Mateo Sjoberg had three of those goals, two of which came on nearly-identical plays while short-handed, and all were assisted solely by Danylo Bereza. His hat-trick goal was a one-timer on a pass through the slot that Sjoberg sailed home with less than a minute left in the middle frame to make it 5-3 Delta.
In the middle of the Sjoberg and Bereza show, Baden Pazdzierski netted his first PJHL goal in just his fourth game of the season, picking up a rebound in front and deked around the sprawled-out Keegan Maddocks.
Hu and Sjoberg each scored another goal in the third period to seal the 7-3 win for Delta, who will now play the North Vancouver Wolf Pack in the second round of the playoffs, following the completion of the play-in round.
