The Delta Ice Hawks are soaring back to the Pacific Junior Hockey League championship series for the second straight year.
A 2-1 game five win over the Richmond Sockeyes on Sunday night at the Ladner Leisure Centre sends the Ice Hawks onto the PJHL finals against the Ridge Meadows Flames. That series is expected to start next Sunday with the winner representing the PJHL at the Cyclone Taylor Cup provincial junior “B” championships — slated for April 12-15 in Richmond.
Anyone who took in even one game of the “Tunnel Series” would have a hard time believing they were watching the two highest scoring teams in the regular season that averaged over five goals per contest.
Defence was the theme from start to finish and it has been that way for the Ice Hawks since the playoffs began.
They managed just 12 goals in the series but surrendered only seven. Remarkably, they have yet to allow a third period goal in the playoffs — a stretch of nine games.
Sunday’s clincher was a familiar blueprint: a quick start with a pair of first period goals from Gary Dhaliwal and Daniel Rubin then ride the goaltending of Jordan Naylor and some solid defensive hockey in front of him.
“What we have been saying to the guys is at the end of the day is we are not going to sacrifice much on offence by being really defensive,” said Delta head coach Steve Robinson. “Although we sacrificed more than I expected. (We have a bunch of guys) who are not scoring right now. Sometimes the offence can be fickle but if we can keep every team to two goals or less then we are going to win.
“That is an unbelievable team down there that can score at a remarkable clip. (Our guys) just didn’t want to give them an inch. You could feel it on the bench.
“Jordan was fantastic again. What I love about ‘Nails' is he is just so calm and collective. I love his disposition that way. It breeds confidence in the team because they know he is solid back there.”
There may be no love loss between the cross river rivals but there certainly is a level of respect and that was evident in neither of them budging from their game plan.
In the end, Delta took control of the series by winning twice at Minoru Arenas, including a 2-0 triumph in game four last Thursday which featured a superb 32-save performance by Naylor. The 18-year-old has a 1.45 goals against average and .946 save percentage in the post-season.
“Last game we had our chances and could not capitalize. Naylor is a good goalie. You have to get traffic in front of him because if he sees it there is a good chance he will stop it,” said Sockeyes coach Brett Reusch who also got excellent goaltending from Hardy Hoonjan, who made 30 saves on Sunday. “At the end of the day I just think some of our players played hard but we had too many passengers. We had to play 60 minutes and that’s what we kept preaching. Tonight, we weren’t prepared in the first period, got behind two goals and it’s an uphill battle.
“This is not how we wanted it to end but at the end of the day we are lucky that we get to recuperate. We will put in a lot of work over the next month and will be ready (for provincials).”
The Ice Hawks’ depth was tested when rookie standout Aiden Hansen-Bukata took a puck off his throat in the second period. They already were playing much of the series without Magnus Cheung who was injured in game one.
However, the South Delta product surprisingly returned for the third period, and gave his team a lift as Richmond pressed for the tying goal after Jordan Funk had put the visitors on the board. Hansen-Bukata is typically paired with Gabriel LeBlanc — another impressive freshman who logs major ice time.
“I figured we would have a bit more offensive production but when a team is coming as hard as Richmond did it’s hard to produce the way we normally can do,” said LeBlanc. “The coaching staff and room mentality is we just want to win. We come ready to win every game.”
The rookie-loaded blueline is part of this team’s unique make-up that is now looking to finish off a dominating campaign in style. Throw in their regular season record and Delta is now 45-5-0-3.
“The architecture of this team is really a nice balance of skill, grit, experience and youth,” added Robinson. “It’s a unique blend and I think the guys got what it takes.”
Icing…
Ice Hawks GM Darren Naylor watched his team live for the first time in over a month after the Nanaimo Clippers were bounced from B.C. Hockey League playoffs on Saturday.
Robinson will also be guiding Seafair at the Bantam Tier One Provincial Championships — March 19-22 in Nanaimo — but won’t miss time with either team. Game two of the PJHL finals is expected to be March 20 but Seafair will be playing at 10 a.m. that day and not until late in the afternoon on March 21.
Ridge Meadows advanced to their first finals in 20 years by eliminating Abbotsford in five games.
