In their 25-year history, the Delta Ice Hawks have never won a playoff championship on home ice. That could change later this afternoon.
The 54th edition of the Cyclone Taylor Cup provincial junior “B” hockey championships concludes today (Sunday) at the Ladner Leisure Centre (LLC) with the host Delta Ice Hawks taking on the Langley Trappers in an all-Pacific Junior Hockey League match-up at 4 p.m.
The Ice Hawks’ only Cyclone Taylor Cup win was in Abbotsford back in 2006. Their three PJHL titles were also on the road — Port Coquitlam, Abbotsford and Ridge Meadows respectively. Now they have an opportunity to do it at the LLC where they are 7-1 in the post-season this year.
Standing in their way is a dominant Trappers team that is looking to conclude its historic season in fitting fashion. They are the PJHL regular season and playoff champions for the first time in their brief history and are riding a 14-3 record in the 2022 playoffs.
The teams have played just one meaningful game against each other this season and that was back in January when Langley prevailed 4-3 at home in a shootout.
Delta also won 7-0 to wrap-up the regular season and 5-2 on Saturday night to conclude round-robin play. In both those games, Langley was resting key regulars.
“The guys feel like it’s a good match-up for them,” said Delta GM and head coach Steve Robinson. “They are confident but obviously there is a lot of respect for them.”
Championship Sunday will begin with the bronze medal match-up at noon between the Revelstoke Grizzlies and Peninsula Panthers.
Here’s a recap of yesterday’s final two round-robin games:
Delta 5
Langley 2
With spots in the gold medal game already secured, the teams took different approaches to their line-ups. Delta went essentially with the same roster that produced wins the previous two nights while Langley opted to rest a number of regulars.
The end result was a somewhat lopsided affair with the Ice Hawks enjoying a 39-14 advantage in the shot department and pulling away in the second period on goals by Jaimie Fuchs, Connor Merriman and Logan Joslin. Merriman added another goal and an assist, while Dominic Passalacqua-Main also scored for Delta. Brock Mierzejewski and Jamie Hylands scored for Langley.
Look for both teams be starting different goalies in the gold medal game with the Ice Hawks turning to Braedy Euerby and the Trappers going with Taje Gill.
Revelstoke 2
Peninsula 1
In another medal round preview, the Grizzlies needed a goal in the 12th round of the shootout from Kurtis Kinoshita to get their first win of the tournament. Remarkably, neither team had scored in the previous 11 attempts with Revelstoke goaltender Jozef Kuchaslo and his counterpart Ashton Lukan earning player-of-the-game honours.
Jacob Smith scored in regulation for Revelstoke while Payton Braun replied for Peninsula.
