Dawson Toledo does the customary Ice Hawks bench leap after scoring his first goal of the playoffs to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead in the first period of Sunday’s Game 4. // Tav Morrison photo
It’s now a win-to-stay-in situation for the Delta Ice Hawks, as they fell 3-2 in a Game 4 heartbreaker to the Richmond Sockeyes in Ladner on Sunday night.
Delta jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half of the opening frame, with two goals just 16 seconds apart. The Merriman brothers got the puck to Ryden Mathieson in the slot and he fired a wrister past Noah Stenvig for a 1-0 Hawks lead.
Almost immediately after the face-off, Michele Romeo got the puck down to Austin Kofler for a chance on net, stopped by Stenvig, but Kofler stayed with the puck and found Dawson Toledo out front. After a bit of a scramble, Toledo was able to slide the puck home to make it 2-0 Delta after the first.
But in the second, Richmond won the face-off Teo Lin scored just eight seconds in to bring Richmond within a goal. Then later in the frame while on the penalty kill, Lin and Nicholas Noren teamed up for two short-handed goals 17 seconds apart, the second of which was the eventual game winner and put the Sockeyes up 3-1 in the series.
Game 5 goes Thursday, March 14 at 7pm at Minoru Arena.
