The Valley West Hawks have extended their win streak to six games, sweeping the Kootenay Ice in a pair of BC Hockey Major Midget League games in Nelson last weekend.
The Hawks blanked the Ice 7-0 Saturday, then won a wild 11-7 contest Sunday morning to push their record to 6-2-0 (won-lost-tied), tied for third place in the 11-team league with the Okanagan Rockets.
The Hawks used the powerplay to surge past Kootenay Saturday, scoring four times with the man advantage in a game delayed almost six hours.
An administrative error had refs scheduled for 5 p.m. rather than 9:45 a.m.,” said Hawks head coach Jessie Leung. “Both teams went through their regular pregame routine only to find out before we were to go on ice for warm up that the refs weren’t there.”
The game eventually began, with officials, at 3:30 p.m.
South Surrey’s Trevor Ayre paced the Hawks with two goals and an assist. Defenceman Matt Barberis of White Rock also had a three-point game, scoring once and adding a pair of assists.
Other goal scorers were Luke Gingras and Wyatt Hicks of Langley, and Semiahmoo Minor Hockey’s Jeffrey Stewart and Shakeel Ebrahim of Surrey. Jakob Walter of Langley earned the shutout.
The Hawks led 1-0 after one period and 4-0 after two.
Sunday was an unusual game, with 18 goals scored and Valley West netminder Nicholas Tallarico of Surrey earning a fighting major and game misconduct in the second period.
“One of the toughest things in our league is to beat a team Saturday and wake up just as hungry to do it again on Sunday,” said Leung. “We started off well with two quick goals but I think we took our foot off the pedal. Credit to Kootenay who never quit and made us pay for our complacent play.”
Down 2-0 after just six minutes of play, the Ice clawed their way back into the game over the next 35 minutes. The game was tied 6-6 early in the third period when the Hawks scored four times in four minutes to break the game open.
Three players finished with five points for Valley West. Ayre scored once and added four assists, with Barberis and Gingras assisting on five goals each.
Stewart and Langley’s James Malm notched three goals and an assist each. Other goal scorers were South Surrey’s Ian Ross and Logan Webber, Christian Bosa of Langley and Cloverdale’s Daniel Chifan.
The Hawks will face the Vancouver Giants next weekend, playing Saturday at home in the Langley Events Centre and Sunday at the Burnaby Winter Club. Both games face-off at 9:30 a.m.
The Giants have won all eight games they have played this season, and trail only the 8-1-1 Cariboo Cougars in the standings.
BLUE LINES: Brett Cox of Cloverdale Minor Hockey played both games as an affiliate player, called up from his Midget A1 team.
Ayre and Gingras are now one-two in the MML scoring race, with Barberis in fourth place. Ayre has seven goals and 22 points while Gingras has eight goals and 20 points, both in eight games played. Barberis has played just six games, the fewest among the top 20 scorers, and has two goals and 16 assists in just six games played.
