Hawks goalie Justin Wagner posted a shutout on Tuesday night, stopping 29 shots against the Brittain Conference winners, the Langley Trappers.
In the final game of the regular season, the Delta Ice Hawks defeated the number one seed in the Harold Brittain Conference, the Langley Trappers by a score of 7-0.
Justin Wagner stopped 29 shots in the game, making some big saves in key moments to keep his team’s momentum rolling going into the playoffs.
Delta opened the scoring late in the first period, as Yuji Akimoto cut into the slot and took a shot on Caedon Bellmann, who made the initial stop. The rebound, though, went right to Caden Stephenson just to the right of Langley’s net and he shot it home to give the Hawks the lead.
With less than a minute to go, Langley was able to go out on a breakaway, but Wagner stoned the attempt, keeping his team up 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
The Hawks were able to double their lead later in the middle frame. Jerome Maharaj tried to go across to Nico Marini, but Marini’s stick got tied up mid-shot and the puck deflected in the air to Kyle Kalamaras, who tapped it in behind Bellmann.
The captain added some insurance on for the Hawks in the third period. Ben Kjernisted took a shot from the point that hit Conner Merriman out front. The puck went right to Alec Scouras, who fired high-blocker side for his 21st of the year.
While playing 4-on-4, Carson Hemenway scored two goals 10 seconds apart of help Delta pull away. The first came after a cross-ice pass from Scouras and Hemenway was able to stride into the slot and wrist one high-glove.
After winning the faceoff after the goal, the Ice Hawks took advantage of the open ice 4-on-4, making a series of quick passes, ending with a Conner Merriman cross-ice pass to Hemenway, who one-timed it into the net.
Hemenway was involved in the next goal as well, going from the right point to the left side and taking a shot that Nico Marini was able to tip in, his 13th of the season.
Before the end of the game, and the unofficial end of the regular season, Ryan Bal scored his second goal of the year on the power play. Dominic Passalacqua-Main skated in and passed down low to Carson Bigras. Bigras was able to get a pass through the crease to Bal and the Hawks excitedly celebrated the defenseman’s goal.
