Flames snuff out hot Hawks

It was a battle of the goalies at the Ladner Leisure Centre on Tuesday night, as the game went to overtime, with the Ridge Meadows Flames edging out the Delta Ice Hawks 2-1 in the extra frame.

Jordy Engleson and Elliott Marshall combined to make 69 saves on 72 shots, as both teams had more than 30 shots apiece.

Head coach Steve Robinson noted that his team is still gelling and haven’t quite hit their stride yet as a group.

“To lose in overtime is always kind of frustrating,” he said. “We weren’t quite dialed in the way we’d like to be, in mid-season form, in our execution and we’ve just got to keep working on it.”

“We just can’t seem to capitalize on enough chances to get the goals we need to get that separation and find a way to get a solid W.”

Neither team could get on the board in the first period, as Marshall and Engleson kept the puck out of the net.

Ridge’s Trevor Townsend scored just 18 seconds into the second period, shooting it over Engleson, giving the Flames a 1-0 lead.

The Ice Hawks had three power plays in the middle frame, but weren’t able to score with the man-advantage.

That changed in the third period, though, when Truman Chiu evened the score with a power play goal. Ryan Xu found Chiu at the blue line and he moved into the high-slot, firing a slot to the far post through a screen.

Sixty minutes was not enough time to decide a winner, but Ridge Meadows needed just 23 seconds more to win the game on a goal from Jayden Genberg.

“When one goes in so quick like that, it’s deflating, for sure. I feel bad for Jordy, who played another stellar game” said Robinson. “But there were lots of positives in there. In the second half, we took the game to them for the most part.”

Robinson hopes that carrying over the positives he saw in Tuesday night’s game combined with some work at practice will help lead his team to a win on Sunday against the Grandview Steelers. Game time is 7:15 at the Burnaby Winter Club.