It was a close game in Ladner on Tuesday evening, but the Ridge Meadows Flames were able to edge out the Delta Ice Hawks by a score of 3-2.
Goalie Jordy Engleson had another good night in net, stopping 26 of 29 shots. The Ice Hawks fired 36 shots on Chad Cromar, but only got two past the goal line.
“I just feel like the second period is where we lost our footing in the game. In the first period, we weren’t perfect by any stretch, but we had some energy and we generated a decent amount of shots,” said head coach Steve Robinson.
“The strategy against these guys was they’re a bigger, older team… If the game has a fluid tempo, a pace game back-and-forth, that plays to our advantage. For the most part, I felt like we were trying to get that game going in the first period, then I felt like we deviated and went back to habits.”
The Hawks got on the board first, with Montaro Uyeyama storming the Flames’ net and sneaking one past Chad Cromar for a 1-0 lead.
Nicholas Amsler tied the game for the Flames before the end of the period on a funky shot that somehow found its way between the pipe and Jordy Engleson.
The game saw no more goals until the third, when Trevor Townsend stole the puck in the Ice Hawks’ end and backhanded home the go-ahead goal.
Just 49 seconds later though, Truman Chiu tied it back up with a slap shot in the slot, his ninth of the season.
Later in the frame, Jarod McKay took a shot from the point, and Talon Duff was able to pick up the rebound and get it past Engleson for what was eventually the winning goal. The Ice Hawks pulled Engleson in in the last minutes of the game and had some promising chances, but they just weren’t able to convert.
“It’s disappointing to lose on home ice and not get any points out of it,” added Robinson. “It was a missed opportunity.”
The Hawks will now have another week between games, and Robinson said that his team has some work to do before playing Aldergrove on December 3.
“Right now, we’re sitting outside of a playoff spot, so we need to have urgency from the start of the game to the end of the game, and deliver a 60-minute effort, which is something that hasn’t been done consistently enough over this last 3-4 week stretch. All we can do is put the nose to the grindstone, look at the details of our game, and try to come back better.
December 3 is also Teddy Bear Toss night, supporting Deltassist and their Christmas programs. There will be teddies for sale at the game with a minimum $5 donation, as well as a food donation box and chuck-a-puck.
