Carson Merriman celebrates his first period goal, the first of the night for the Ice Hawks and his second of the playoffs, which started the Hawks off to their Game 4 win.
In what had been a close series so far, the Ice Hawks routed the Steelers in Game 4 Tuesday night, taking a 6-1 win at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
Zach Shaughnessy had another stellar night in net, allowing just one goal on 24 shots and providing a strong backstop on the Hawks’ seven penalty kills on the night.
Carson Merriman had the lone goal of the first period – he took a pass from Kyle Robinson in the slot, made a quick move to dodge a Grandview stick, and wired it past Ronin Geraghty.
The Hawks doubled their lead in the second period with again the lone goal of the period. Alec Scouras led a breakout and centred a pass for AP Mykhaylo Sheludchenko, and he was able to get his stick on it while being checked for a chip in.
Early in the third, the Hawks made it 3-0; Brayden Sinclair led the way out of the Hawks’ zone with Sheludchenko. Sinclair dished to his cohort, who passed back to him at the last second for a delayed wrist shot top shelf.
Hawks goalie Zach Shaughnessy held a shutout in the game until the 9:58 mark of the third period, stopping 20 shots to that point, when Grandview’s Alec Pettingale picked off a pass in the Hawks zone and scored unassisted.
Not long after that, though, the three-goal lead was restored for Delta. Robinson stepped into a pass from Grandview and skated up the ice. He tripped, but was able to still get the puck to Conner Merriman from his knees. Once Robinson was on his feet, the two played tic-tac-toe with a few passes before Merriman finished it off to make it 4-1.
The Hawks continued to add on, with Alex Lucchesi following up on a forecheck in the Steelers’ zone. He took advantage of a miscommunication between the defence, snagged the puck, and was able to slide it past Geraghty.
Tye Hemenway had the final goal of the game with just over five minutes to go. Sinclair had the puck down in the corner in Grandview’s end and passed up to Hemenway, who was able to weave a shot through traffic and find mesh for a 6-1 Delta final.
