Hockey
Ice Hawks Advance – PJHL Finals Set
Delta outscored the White Rock Whalers by a 20-10 margin pulling out the series win 4-1 that now has them advance against the Ridge Meadows Flames in a best of seven series.
As of press time the schedule is still being worked on due to the availability of ice times at the facilities, which will change for the Ice Hawks.
Home games are played Tuesday in Ladner at the Leisure Centre but as you can imagine the ice is being taken out to accommodate usage for summer groups, such as lacrosse and ball hockey.
As you can imagine when you reach the playoffs, winning comes down to discipline, focus and playing a team game, which some teams have yet to understand.
With the Delta Ice Hawks advancing to the PJHL final, personally I would like to dedicate this series to a friend whom I knew since the late 70ties and was heavily involved with the Ice Hawks.
For me personally, I want to dedicate this series and the Cyclone Taylor Cup Championship run to Wayne Hubbard who we lost tragically last year and was a true friend to everyone. RIP Wayne!
Richmond Sockeyes were upset by the Whalers and outscored 17-10 in the five game series, while Delta faced off against the Steelers managing to out score them by 20-8.
Both series saw Richmond and Delta play in the smaller rink of their opponent but while the end result saw skill and discipline on display only one team can advance.
The final series is set which should be an exceptional series with the winner advancing to the Cyclone Taylor Cup hosted by the Revelstoke Grizzlies which runs from April 13-16.
IF you get a chance visit the KIJHL site and look at the stats page for game attendance for games at various rinks and you’ll be quite surprised at game attendance.
For those who are not familiar with the championship for Junior B supremacy with the VIJHL, PJHL, KIJHL and the host team each year getting an automatic play into the championship.
Delta are looking to advance and still have the sour taste of losing out this past spring considering they hosted the series at the Leisure Centre coming up short that saw the Langley Trappers capturing the championship trophy.
In conversation with Ice Hawks GM/Coach Steve Robinson he mentioned “he has played last year’s games to the team more than once this year causing losing on home ice wasn’t a way they wanted to finish the season.”
With the final series finally the game could get down to both discipline and goaltending but both teams are up to advancing but don’t think that this will be a four game sweep by either team.
We are calling for this series to go six games and we aren’t giving any secrets out of the box.
The regular season saw Ridge Meadows finish second in the Harold Brittain Conference with a record of 31 (W), 14 (L), 2 (OTL), 1 (SOL) with 65 pts managing 211 GF, 148 GA along with 912 PIM”s.
Delta on the other hand finished first in the Tom Shaw Conference with 35 (W), 13 (L) for 70 pts finishing with 256 GF, 110 GA along with 1116 PIM’s through a 49 game league schedule.
Last season we were fortunate to do the games for Eastlink TV and in one of our conversation Gary Sulz, the Mayor of Revelstoke mentioned to us “Revelstoke has a long history of hockey and the Grizzlies have been a big part of our community for more than 20 years and I am very excited that the Revelstoke Grizzlies Junior Hockey Team will be hosting the 2023 Cyclone Taylor Cup.”
During another interview Ryan Parent, GM/Head Coach of the Grizzlies mentioned “Our community has become well-known for its tremendous support of junior hockey and we’re excited to showcase that next April!”
Let’s not forget that the PJHL has added their 14th team who begin play this fall and are called the PoCo TrailBlazers with their prospects camp running from April 21-23 at the PoCo Rec Center.
Penalty summary in minutes
- Game 1 WR 48 Delta 20
- Game 2 WR 30, Delta 8
- Game 3 WR 19, Delta 6
- Game 4 WR 26, Delta 22,
- Game 5 WR 53, Delta 16
- Total WR 176 Delta 72