It was all Ice Hawks on Tuesday night at the Ladner Leisure Centre, with Delta defeating the Port Moody Panthers 8-1.
Delta got off to a hot start in the first, scoring four goals. To open the scoring, Ethan Ferrara broke up a Panthers clear and got the puck to Kyle Kalamaras. Kalamaras passed inside to Dalton MacGillivray, who beat Panthers goalie Maclean Roman.
Yuji Akimoto made his Ice Hawks debut Tuesday, and made an impact right away. On the man-advantage, he skated through from the Hawks’ defensive zone deep into Panthers territory, finding an open Alex Lucchesi for a power play goal, his team-leading sixth on the year.
The third Ice Hawks goal play started with Dominic Main winning a race to the puck behind the Panthers net, and a trailing Connor Merriman picked up the puck. Alec Scouras sent home a pass from Merriman to add to Delta’s lead.
Ladner local Carson Hemenway scored his first of two goals to wrap up the first period scoring. He nabbed a clearing attempt from the Panthers defense, skated to the centre point, and let a shot go.
Carson Merriman continued the Hawks’ offensive outbreak in the second period. Kalamaras stole the puck away on a backcheck and dished to Merriman, who quickly took a couple strides and wristed it past Roman.
Hemenway unleashed another shot from the point, the right side this time, for his second goal of the night and put the Hawks up 6-0.
The Panthers got on the board in the latter half of the middle frame, with Dong Eun Lee centering a pass from below the goal line to Connor Hughes, who was the only one to beat Dawson Chen on the night.
Kalamaras tallied a goal of his own quickly in the third period. He won the faceoff in the Hawks’ end, sending the puck to Cameron Lee. Lee went up to Connor Merriman, who gave it back to Kalamaras in the neutral zone, and he did the rest.
Scouras added a final goal with less than a minute left in the game and the Hawks on the power play, picking up a rebound out front and putting it in the back of the net.
Hawks goalie Chen made 21 saves on 22 shots, and Panthers goalie Roman stopped 48 of 56.
