Carson Merriman celebrates after scoring the game winner with just five seconds left in the game Tuesday night, boosting the Hawks to a 2-1 win against the Wolf Pack. // Tav Morrison photo
The Delta Ice Hawks found a way to win on Tuesday night, taking a dramatic 2-1 win over the North Vancouver Wolf Pack at the Ladner Leisure Centre to stay undefeated on home ice this season.
The home Hawks heavily outshot the visiting Wolf Pack 50-15, but only led for literally five seconds at the end of the game, when Carson Merriman scored the power play winner.
North Van had the lone goal of the first period on an unfortunate bounce, as Zach Shaughnessy stopped the initial shot from JJ Pickell and reached out with his stick to shoot it away, but Brandon Petrie had the same idea and the deflection looped in over Shaughnessy’s head for the 1-0 Wolf Pack lead.
There wasn’t another goal scored by either team until later in the third, when the Ice Hawks finally got on the board while on the power play. Payton Hu centred the puck to Danylo Bereza, who then deked a defender and reached around Zoltan Bencsik while skating over the goal line, chipping the puck into the net on the far side to tie the game 1-1.
When it looked like the game was heading to overtime, the Hawks came through again while on the man-advantage. Hu centred another pass from the right side that was tipped on by Conner Merriman on its way to Carson Merriman on the far side. With one second left in the power play and five seconds left in the game, he one-timed it home into an open net for a 2-1 Hawks win.
