Kyle Kalamaras celebrates his power play goal in the third period that brought the Ice Hawks to within one, but that’s as close as they would come, falling 4-2 on Monday night in Game 2.
It was another tight matchup between the Delta Ice Hawks and White Rock Whalers in Game 2 of the Tom Shaw Conference final, with White Rock taking it by a 4-2 score.
The Whalers won Game 1 on Saturday night in double overtime, and now have a 2-0 lead in the series, despite the Ice Hawks outshooting the Whalers in both games.
Just 37 seconds into the game, Chris Fortems gave White Rock the lead, finishing off a 2-on-1 pass from Zachary Sherwin with a one-timer, the lone goal of the first period.
Delta evened the score quickly in the middle frame, with Carson Merriman and Dominic Passalacqua-Main breaking out of the Hawks’ zone. Merriman found the trailing Ryan Bal, who took a shot on a sprawling Keegan Maddocks. He made the save, but the rebound went right to Passalacqua-Main out front for the score.
The Whalers opened the third period with another early goal, intercepting the puck in the Ice Hawks’ zone and after a couple of chances, Sherwin beat Braedy Euerby to give White Rock a 2-1 lead.
With a Whaler in the penalty box, Matthew Burry got in behind the Delta defense and picked up a long pass from Butch La Roue, doubling White Rock’s lead with a short-handed marker, making it 3-1.
On that same power play, Delta got one back. With Delta cycling the puck, it ended up on the stick of Yuji Akimoto. He went across to Passalacqua-Main, who took a one-time shot on net and before it got there, Kyle Kalamaras tipped it and redirected it past Maddocks to pull the Hawks within one again.
Late in the third, the Hawks pulled the goalie while on the man-advantage in an attempt to try and even the score, but Travis Smythe disrupted the play coming out of the penalty box and the Whalers’ Sherwin picked up the puck. He carried it over centre and fired it into the open net to seal the game for White Rock.
Game 3 goes Tuesday night, March 8, back at the Ladner Leisure Centre, as the Ice Hawks will be looking to start their comeback in the series.
