Carson Merriman had two short-handed goals 36-seconds apart early in the third period to put the Hawks up by a couple goals to help complete the Hawks’ comeback against the Surrey Knights Tuesday night.
It was a wild one at the Ladner Leisure Centre on Tuesday night, as the Hawks defeated the Surrey Knights 8-4, but not without some adversity to start the game.
The Ice Hawks got on the board first, just 1:33 in, and it looked like the home team was off to a good start. Alec Scouras stole the puck from Surrey at the Knights’ blue line and it bounced to Payton Hu. Hu circled around and found Scouras down low for a shot. He was stopped but Sinclair moved in on the rebound and passed again to Scouras for his twenty-first of the season.
That lead did not last long, though, as Surrey scored three quick goals, two on the power play, to take a 3-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
Scouras was not done though, as he had his second of the night by deking his way past a Knights defender and beating Mason Upton one-handed on the backhand to make it 3-2 early in the second period.
Just over a minute later, Ashan Khangura was below the goal line in Surrey territory and dished up to Aiden McGregor-Bennett, who picked a corner on Upton to tie the game up again.
Surrey retook the lead again while on the penalty kill, with Nolan Foster stealing the puck at the top of his own zone and taking it down the ice for a short-handed goal, the final Knights goal of the game.
Delta would go on to score five unanswered goals to win the game, starting with two goals from Conner Merriman before the end of the second period; one on the power play and one short-handed.
He quickly turned on a pass from Colin Jang for a one-timer goal to beat Upton and tie the game 4-4. Then, with about seven seconds left in the period, he stole the puck on the Hawks’ blue line and broke out down the ice, scoring with less than a second left on the clock.
In the third, the Hawks put the game out of reach, tallying two more short-handed goals and an even-strength one. Carson Merriman had the two short-handed goals just 36 seconds apart on the same penalty kill.
Luke Mongrain put pressure on the puck behind the Surrey net and got it out front to Carson, who went five-hole on Upton for his first goal. He then skated out on a breakaway not long after that and made a couple moves before going high-blocker to make it 7-4.
To put the game out of reach, Kyle Robinson stole the puck and took a quick shot for his thirteenth of the season.
