MAPLE RIDGE, B.C. – The showdown for the Stonehouse Cup continued on Friday evening, the second-straight game on Jim Robson Way. The Ridge Meadows Flames completed the comeback effort in Wednesday’s opening salvo, erasing the Delta Ice Hawks’ 3-1 lead and forcing overtime. The Ice Hawks needed a different ending, and the Flames needed to consolidate their home-ice advantage.
First Period
For the second consecutive game, Ice Hawks netminder Merik Erickson and Flames goalkeeper Matthew Candusso skated out to their respective creases for a nearly 60-minute staring contest from 190 feet out. The entrenched starters – also the two most-recent league champions – began their duel anew.
The first team to blink in the contest was the Flames, who found themselves on the back foot with defenceman and captain Lukas Ravenstein given the first penalty of the game in the form of a holding minor. The extra space on the ice was all the Hawks would need to crack the game open, as forward Mateo Sjoberg and Grady Lenton teamed up on the power play, the former scoring his ninth playoff goal.
Another chance with the man-advantage was soon at hand for Delta, with Ridge Meadows forward Jonah Power-Smith penalized for tripping, though no goals would come of it. The Hawks would also be kind enough to grant the Flames some power play time later in the period, with Lenton taken off for hooking. Similarly, the Flames could not generate anything from the chance.
Fresh out of the box and with 30 seconds to go in the period, Lenton hopped to it and joined forces with Sjoberg and defenceman Nick Goyer to cash in a crucial goal, the latter’s eighth tally in the postseason. Goyer’s clutch goal set the advantage for Delta at 2-0 as the teams filed off to their dressing rooms.
Second Period
To say the game was low-event is truly to undersell the excitement factor of the game, rather the sparse entries on the game sheet do more to highlight how much was bubbling just below the surface all game long.
Tempers flared midway through the middle frame, with the Ice Hawks down a pair of players for differing durations. Goyer took an interference penalty which sidelined him for two minutes, whilst forward Rajun Parmar took an early trip back to the locker room with a ten-minute misconduct past the halfway point of the period.
Though the power play chance had expired, the Flames whirled up enough momentum to finally break their way onto the board, as affiliate forward Charlie Robinson scored an unassisted goal to raise his team’s morale. That’s all they would muster for the rest of the period, as the Ice Hawks maintained a now-truncate lead,
Third Period
The visiting Delta Ice Hawks knew the key to survival, and eventually victory, was to stall any momentum the Ridge Meadows Flames could generate. In any other game, that second period goal from Robinson could be a flashpoint moment, a tidal shift, a swing of the pendulum for the Flames to get back into the game. However, the Hawks also knew what that burgeoning comeback effort looks like firsthand; all the better to best them at their own game.
Late in the period, with the clock past the final minute of the game, the Flames summoned Candusso back to the bench in favour of an extra attacker. Carrying out their objective to a tee, the Hawks worked efficiently to seal the victory. Colin Jang drove the dagger into the empty net just eleven seconds after Candusso abdicated his post.
Scoring three goals in back-to-back efforts on a stingy Flames team paid dividends, as the Delta Ice Hawks secured a 3-1 victory in the game and caught up in the series, now tied 1-1.
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NOTABLE NOTES
• Charlie Robinson made his PJHL debut for the Ridge Meadows Flames, wearing jersey number 15. The 2008-born forward from Coquitlam had a stat line of 10-23-33 in 36 games for the Burnaby Winter Club’s U18 Prep team. In his league debut, he scored an unassisted goal late in the second period to put the Flames on the board.
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THREE STARS
• Ridge Meadows Flames affiliate forward Charlie Robinson scored his team’s only goal tonight, named third star in his first PJHL game.
• Delta Ice Hawks goaltender Merik Erickson was exemplary once again, penning another masterpiece in the conclusory games of his junior hockey career. The 2004-born netminder from North Delta turned aside 33 of the Flames’ 34 shots and steered his club to a series tied at 1-1. In the win, Erickson was named second star of the game.
• Delta Ice Hawks defenceman Nick Goyer had himself a game, scoring the eventual game-winning goal in the dying seconds of the first period and later helping Colin Jang seal the win with an empty-netter. The graduating blueliner from Langley secured first-star honours for his efforts.
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STONEHOUSE CUP PLAYOFF SERIES SCHEDULE
Stonehouse Cup Finals (league seeding in parenthesis)
(1) Ridge Meadows Flames vs. (3) Delta Ice Hawks
• Game 1 @ Ridge Meadows: 4-3 OTL, RM leads 1-0
• Game 2 @ Ridge Meadows: 3-1 W, series tied 1-1
• Game 3 @ Delta: Sunday, March 23rd, 5:30 PM @ Ladner Leisure Centre
• Game 4 @ Delta: Tuesday, March 25th, 7:35 PM @ Ladner Leisure Centre
• Game 5 @ Ridge Meadows: Friday, March 28th, 7:30 PM @ Cam Neely Arena*
• Game 6 @ Delta: Sunday, March 30th, 5:30 PM @ Ladner Leisure Centre*
• Game 7 @ Ridge Meadows: Wednesday, April 2nd, 7:30 PM @ Cam Neely Arena*
* = if necessary
Tom Shaw Conference Finals (conference seeding in parenthesis)
(1) Delta Ice Hawks vs. (2) Richmond Sockeyes (a.k.a. Tunnel Series 2025)
• Game 1 @ Delta: 5-4 W, DEL leads 1-0
• Game 2 @ Richmond: 8-4 W, DEL leads 2-0
• Game 3 @ Delta: 3-2 OTW, DEL leads 3-0
• Game 4 @ Richmond: 4-2 L, DEL leads 3-1
• Game 5 @ Delta: 7-3 W, DEL wins 4-1
Tom Shaw Conference Semifinals (conference seeding in parenthesis)
(1) Delta Ice Hawks vs. (5) Port Coquitlam Trailblazers
• Game 1 @ Delta: 7-3 W, DEL leads 1-0
• Game 2 @ Port Coquitlam: 7-4 L, series tied 1-1
• Game 3 @ Port Coquitlam: 4-2 L, PC leads 2-1
• Game 4 @ Delta: 9-1 W, series tied 2-2
• Game 5 @ Delta: 5-1 W, DEL leads 3-2
• Game 6 @ Port Coquitlam: 7-1 W, DEL wins 4-2
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