Alec Scouras scored his seventh goal of the playoffs and had an assist in Thursday’s Game 5, bringing his playoff point total to 17, which leads the Hawks in the post-season.
In what continues to be a back-and-forth series, the Ridge Meadows Flames took Game 5 after scoring five unanswered goals in the third period and now lead the Delta Ice Hawks in the PJHL Finals three games to two.
So far in this series, the team that has scored first in each game has lost that game, and the away team has also won every game.
The Hawks were the first to score, continuing their power play success from Game 4. There was a bit of a scramble in crease for the puck and Conner Merriman was there to poke it home, his fifth goal in the last three games.
With less than a minute to go, the Flames also scored on a scramble, with Merik Erickson sliding out to make a save and losing an edge, and Jack Foster was able to slip it into the net with 37 seconds remaining in the period.
In the second, Alec Scouras went on a partial break, trailed by Carson Merriman. The two traded passes and Scouras finished the play with a deke around a diving Cam Connolly and slid it home.
Not long after that, though, the Flames tied it again, thanks to a beneficial bounce off the boards and out front to Jordan Kujala.
Hawks AP Declan Warburton scored his first PJHL goal, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Colin Jang went on the forecheck and came away with the puck, tapping it to open ice and Warburton made it there first and one-timed a shot past Connolly for a 3-2 Hawks lead.
Early in the third, Ridge Meadows again evened the score, with Foster appearing to try to pass out front and bouncing it off Merik Erickson’s pad instead.
Just 37 seconds later, the Flames took the lead when Pierce Whyte came down the left side and cut in, his shot beating Erickson blocker-side.
On their third shot of the third period, the Flames netted their third goal of the period. Zack Lagrange stole the puck from Yuji Akimoto down low in the Hawks zone and made it a 5-3 lead for the visitors.
Past the midway point of the third, the Flames went on a 3-on-2 rush, stealing the puck at their blue line. Lagrange carried it into the zone and took the shot himself to open up a 3-goal lead.
They added another quick power play marker towards the end of the period, a hat trick goal for Foster, to seal the game 7-3 ahead of Game 6 on Saturday night back in Maple Ridge.
