The Delta Ice Hawks’ winning ways continued, as they stormed The Castle on Thursday night, defeating the Surrey Knights 7-2.
Seven different Hawks had goals in the win, and Zach Shaughnessy had another shut out going until the third period while the Hawks were down a man in the final frame.
The first period saw just one goal, from Ryan Bal, who picked up a big rebound off the blocker of Knights’ goalie DJ Cash and one-timed his second of the season into the net for a 1-0 Hawks lead.
Like the last Hawks game, the second period was goal-heavy, starting with Dany Bereza’s fourth this year. Payton Hu wove his way into the zone before dishing to Carson Merriman. Waiting for the right moment, Merriman threaded the needle for Bereza, who shot far side as Cash was sliding the other way.
Forty-eight seconds later, Merriman put up a goal of his own. Hu won the faceoff in the Knights’ zone and fed the puck to Merriman, who scored his fourteenth immediately to make it 3-0 Hawks.
Later on, Bereza took a point-blank shot, stopped by Cash, but Michele Romeo won a puck battle out front, turned and whipped another shot on net, a laser past Cash near-side, high and tight for his eleventh so far this season.
Before the end of the frame, Brandon Petrie tacked on his third, this one on the man-advantage. Tye Hemenway sent a spin pass down low for Bereza, who was able to hit the stick of Petrie in the slot and he scored on a wide-open net to make it 5-0 after 40 minutes.
The scoring continued in the third period, when Petrie took a shot from the point less than two minutes into the frame and Nicholas Kolb was able to put a beautiful tip on the shot for his fourth of the season and a 6-0 Hawks lead, another power play goal.
The Knights had two power play goals of their own in the third, the only two to get past Shaughnessy on the night, but the Hawks were able to bounce back for another before the game ended.
Hemenway was near the right point and passed diagonally to Mateo Sjoberg through the slot for a one-time blast – the third Hawks power play goal of the night, Sjoberg’s fifth of the year, and a 7-2 Hawks win.
