The Valley West Hawks closed out the first half of the BC Hockey Major Midget schedule with a sweep of the North Island Silvertips last weekend at the Langley Events Centre.
The Hawks doubled North Island 6-3 Saturday morning, then posted a 5-2 victory Sunday morning, completing the first 20 games of the season with a 14-6-0 won-lost-tied record.
In third place in the 11-team provincial league, the Valley West team is five points back of both the Okanagan Rockets and Vancouver Giants (16-3-1) and almost 10 points clear of the two fourth-place teams.
The Hawks led for all but 19 seconds of Saturday’s game. That’s how long it took for Cloverdale’s Jordan Funk to give the home side an early lead, one which became 2-0 on a goal from David Koch of White Rock four minutes later.
Devante Stephens of White Rock, and Surrey’s Paul Savage and Justin Wilde added second period goals for Valley West. Paul Smith of White Rock tallied in the third to complete the scoring.
Stephens, Mitch Newsome (Surrey), Jesse Lansdell (Langley) and Matt Bradley (Surrey) each collected a pair of assists.
In Sunday’s game, Trevor Ayre of Surrey gave Valley West their first lead seven minutes into the game, but before the first period was over the Silvertips had pulled even.
A half-minute into the second period, Bradley made it 2-1 for the Hawks, then Savage gave the home team a two-goal lead 30 seconds before the second intermission. In the third period, Bradley scored his second of the game then assisted on a goal from Koch.
Newsome again earned a pair of assists.
Valley West is at home again next weekend, hosting the 8-11-1 Cariboo Cougars. Games times ate 12:15 p.m. Saturday and 9:15 a.m. Sunday at the Langley Sportsplex.
