The Hawks went out on the ice to celebrate with their goalie Braedy Euerby following their 6-3 win over the Jets on Tuesday night.
In their first game back at the Ladner Leisure Centre since before Christmas, the Ice Hawks took a 6-3 win over the Chilliwack Jets in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
A five-minute man advantage in the second period was the difference maker in the game, as the Ice Hawks scored three goals with the man-advantage and didn’t look back.
The Hawks got off to a very quick start, with Dalton MacGillivray scoring his 23rd goal of the season just 12 seconds into the game. Yuji Akimoto banked the puck up to MacGillivray in the neutral zone, and after passing to Alec Scouras, he got the puck back from the Hawks captain and scored on a tap-in.
Halfway through the period, Delta doubled their lead. Conner Merriman stole the puck while fore-checking and was able to get it over to Kyle Robinson. Robinson kicked it off his skate to his stick and fired a quick shot past Chilliwack goalie Evan Paul.
With just under a minute to go, the Jets got themselves on the board. Defenseman Sebastian Pankiw sent the puck up to Nolan Wall, who passed it over to Jovan Malay. Malay carried into the Ice Hawks’ zone and passed back to Wall in the centre. Hawks goalie Braedy Euerby got a glove on Wall’s shot, but it squeaked through and over the goal line, making it 2-1 at the first intermission.
Chilliwack tied the game at two in the middle frame while on the power play, with Blake Bryce saucering a pass through the neutral zone, tipping off Reilley Kotai and ending up on the stick of Caleb Garet. Garet beat a Delta defenseman and settled the puck before firing it past Euerby.
But the Ice Hawks took back their lead with a vengeance, scoring multiple times on a five-minute major power play. The first came from Kyle Kalamaras, who finished off a play with a one-timer on a play set up by Carson Bigras and Robinson.
The Hawks continued on with the man-advantage, cycling the puck around to JJ Milne, who took a shot saved by Paul. The rebound went out to Scouras near the left point, who sent the puck over to Carson Hemenway, and he was able to beat Paul for the Hawks’ fourth goal.
The Hawks finished their scoring in the frame with one more power play goal, with Hemenway going cross-ice to Scouras, then Scouras fed Milne in the slot. Milne took a quick shot to Paul’s far side to find mesh and give the Hawks a three-goal lead.
The Jets got one back before the period ended to come within two. Mitchell Metcalfe picked up a loose puck and dropped to Garet, who took a shot that was stopped by Euerby, but Metcalfe was there to clean up the rebound.
Delta took their three-goal lead back midway through the third with an insurance goal. Following some pressure from Chilliwack, MacGillivray deked by a Jets player and broke out of the zone with Carson Merriman for a 2-on-1. MacGillivray passed over to Merriman at the last minute and he was able to tap the puck past Paul for his 15th of the season.
