After falling behind 3-0 to the Port Moody Panthers, the Delta Ice Hawks scored six unanswered goals to take a 6-3 win for an exciting finish on home ice.
Merik Erickson came into the game to relieve Imaree Dhaliwal after the third Panthers goal and slammed the door shut, allowing for the Hawks to make the biggest comeback of the year so far.
Port Moody got on the board first, six minutes into the game, with a goal from long-time Panther Connor Hughes. Then former Hawk Colin Jang doubled the lead to 2-0 a few minutes later. The Hawks applied a lot of pressure, but weren’t able to find the back of the net in the first.
To start the second, Port Moody was on the penalty kill. Eric Fedele and Ryan Sam were able to get away on a 2-on-1 short-handed, and Fedele made it 3-0 Panthers. The Hawks continued to outshoot the Panthers, though, and finally broke through late in the second.
AP Cruz Waltze was challenged in the corner of the Panthers’ zone, but kept the puck and got it out front to Declan Warburton for Warburton’s seventh on the year, this one on the power play to make it 3-1.
With less than a minute to go, Lucas Jakubec connected with Ryden Mathieson behind the net, and he was able to find Brandon Petrie out front for a quick tap-in to bring the home team within one after two periods.
In the third, Mathieson quickly tied it with a goal of his own on a long pass from AP Natahan Barklay, and it snuck through Jovin Manhas to even the score 3-3.
Then, for the first time in the game, the Ice Hawks took the lead on a short-handed breakout goal from Dawson Toledo, who made a move enough to fool Manhas for his third of the season and a 4-3 lead.
On a separate penalty kill not long after that, the Hawks again struck while down a man – with Mateo Sjoberg applying pressure on the forecheck and coming away with the puck, sending a quick pass across to a streaking Brogan Kennedy, who flicked it into the net to put the Hawks up two.
Sjoberg then kept up his over-a-goal-per-game pace with the sixth goal for Delta on the night, finding the smallest space between the crossbar and Manhas, firing a wrister in just the right spot to make it a 6-3 Hawks final.
Highlights: https://youtu.be/DjnczOr2WNA
