Ice Hawks Win PJHL Championship

Photo Credit SportswaveTV

With hockey wrapping up in the lower mainland they are taking the ice out and getting their building ready for lacrosse and as you can expect, if playoffs go longer this could be an issue.

A recent situation for this involved the Delta Ice Hawks and the Ridge Meadows Flames of the PJHL who took their series to a game seven.

While the series went to seven games, Sportswave dedicates this win to former trainer and long time friend Wayne Hubbard who spent tireless hours giving of his time for the Delta Ice Hawks.

If nothing else I want the Ice Hawks to WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR WAYNE!!!!!!!

The series went longer than some or many thought it would go, but the Flames surprised Delta forcing a game seven all due to a “gutsy” performance by the entire Flames team.

It clearly wasn’t a home and home series as Ridge won the first two in Delta only to have Delta reverse this and win games three and four in Ridge.

With the series tied at a pair and Delta returning to the Leisure Centre for game five, it was the Flames who exploded for five goals in the third taking a 3-2 series lead with Delta knowing their backs were to the wall.

Never say never and game six saw another solid performance by the Ice Hawks with the 20 year-olds stepping up the plate pulling out a 2-1 win forcing game seven.

The question was where would it be played considering the ice was taken out in Ladner as well as Delta’s Sungod Arena, so the search was on.

At this point it was about simply finding ice or rather quality ice to play on and after a short search it seemed to be a good fit to play it in Langley at George Preston Arena, home for the Trappers.

While the choice seemed simple, but rather strange that they would be playing in the rink that beat them out last season in the Cyclone Taylor Championship in Delta’s rink as they were the host.

Full credit to the staff at George Preston Arena for stepping up while also hosting 825 hard core supporters making the trek from Maple Ridge as well as Delta or rather – Ladner.

While some might differ, I must say that the entire not only series, but playoffs this season for the PJHL was extremely well officiated that saw them use their top officials for the final series.

Ridge opened the scoring in the first at 16:02 while on the PP with former Ice Hawk Mathew Wise getting revenge on his old team.

They held the lead until 4:47 when Coquitam’s Colin Jang put one past Cam Connolly pulling even with Ridge, which was short lived that saw Theo Kochan give the Flames back the lead at 14:02.

Never say never and if you’ve attended an Ice Hawks game this season, you’ll know that they are capable of a comeback, which they did.

This time it was Connor Merriman who got Delta even at 16:04 getting his 8th of the playoffs that saw the teams take a 2-2 tie to the dressing room after 40 minutes.

The third was more of a tentative battle that saw Delta’s Carson Hemingway give the Ice Hawks the lead at 3:59 getting his 4th.

Ridge is known to come back and in this case it was Pierce Whyte who got the Flames even at three with helpers to Osborne and Kujala with 6:11 left in the third.

That was the way regulation finished that saw the fans entertained to OT that realistically was anyone’s game.

This night had what you could call a Hollywood finish that would see both teams get several chances in OT but in the end it was Delta’s Kyle Robinson who put in the winning goal at 6:11 sending Delta to Revelstoke.

Regardless of the win the highlight of the game came in the second with Erickson forced to come up with what you might consider the save of the game with Flames Theo Kochan awarded a penalty shot at 17:23 in the second only to be turned aside.

While this wasn’t the turning point of the game when it was called you could have heard a “pin drop” in the Ice Hawks suite, but silence turned to shouts when Delta’s Merik Erickson stopped the shot.

Credit to such an exceptional series goes out to both teams and their coaching staff who had several heart-stopping moments in the seven game series.

Delta took four minors, three of which were stick infractions, while Ridge only took one in the final game.

Ridge outshot Delta by a 36-34 margin with Ridge also grabbing two power play goals with Adam Winters the back-up “tender” for Ridge while Zach Shaughnessy was the back-up for Delta in a game that took 2:23 minutes.

For Delta now it’s time to heal and rest the players and focus on what has been eluding them for the past four years – the Cyclone Taylor Cup Championship.

Delta’s Danylo Bereza and Mykhaylo Sheludchenko now head out to Angers, France representing Ukraine at the U18 World Junior Championship and Sportwave wished them all the best.

Overall a great season for the PJHL as they managed to get in a full season of play while also adding the Port Coquitlam Trialblazzers as a new franchise to the league for next season.

The newest addition will balance out both the Tom Shaw Conference as well as the Harold Britton Conference, but at present it’s not sure what team’s will be in each conference.

We’ll keep you posted on this and for those who have never seen or even attended a PJHL game, you’re clearly missing out on exciting Junior Hockey!!!!