Two goals from Alex Suprynowicz and a solid night in net by Jordy Engleson helped pace the Delta Ice Hawks to a 3-2 win over the Mission City Outlaws Tuesday night at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
The win avenged an earlier season loss to the Outlaws and was Delta’s ninth win of the season.
Suprynowicz is on quite a roll to start the year as he now has 16 goals in 14 games.
“The great thing is that when he’s getting good chances, he’s burying a decent amount and he’s got a good roll going,” said head coach Steve Robinson.
The Ice Hawks’ back end started strong, not allowing the Outlaws a shot until the ninth minute of the period, and just letting five make it through to Engleson in the frame.
Suprynowicz netted his 15th goal of the season on the power play to open the scoring. His sharp-angle shot on the goal line gave Delta the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
The Hawks went up 2-0 in the second period on another goal from their leading scorer. Nathan Pelletier found Suprynowicz on a long pass from behind Delta’s goal line, leading to a breakaway with a top-shelf, backhand finish for his sixteenth goal.
Mission answered with two quick back-to-back goals later on in the second period from Chase Newman and Tristyn Olson to tie the game up at two apiece.
“The first one I didn’t see as [Engleson’s] fault, more so just a broken play and a break down in our communication,” said Robinson. “And the second one was just an honest mistake where he lost his tracking, which is pretty rare for him…That was kind of out of character, so that’s one of those plays you just throw aside.”
The score would not remain tied for long though, as Liam Visram found Mark Epshtein in the slot and Epshtein wristed it past Mission goalie Isaac Elias for what would end up being the game-winning goal.
Neither team found the back of the net in the third period. Engleson finished with 21 saves, making some key ones in the final frame, locking up his ninth win of the season.
Delta now has a full week off before their next game, a Tunnel Series game against rivals, the Richmond Sockeyes set for Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the LLC. Face-off is 7:35 p.m.
Icing….The Ice Hawks have made several deals in the past few days to help bolster its line-up.
Paul Georgeopoulos was traded to Port Moody in exchange for future considerations while Max Daerendinger was traded to Grandview in exchange for Dario Esposito. He was a member of North Vancouver last season and the start of this season before being moved to Richmond as part of the Andrew Kemp trade and then was acquired by Grandview to complete the deal with Delta.
Seamus Collins was also acquired from the Victoria Cougars in exchange for future considerations.
with files from Katie Lawrence/Ice Hawks director of digital media
