The killer instinct the Delta Ice Hawks showed to eliminate two of the top teams in the Pacific International Junior Hockey League has gone missing, leaving the championship series completely up for grabs.
After dispatching the North Delta Devils and the regular season champion Richmond Sockeyes, the common belief was the Ice Hawks had survived a much tougher conference and would have little trouble in the finals against the Abbotsford Pilots.
That theory held up when Delta took the opening two games, including an impressive 4-2 game two road win where the locals completely dominated the third period.
Twenty-four hours later they were back at the Ladner Leisure Centre with an opportunity to take a stranglehold on the series.
Even a lackluster effort was good enough for a 2-1 lead with seven minutes remaining until the Pilots struck for a pair of goals less than a minute apart to pull out a 4-3 victory.
It looked like game four Monday night would be a different story when the Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Anthony Brito and Tanner Gattinger before the game was even three minutes old. However, the Pilots fought back with a pair of their own and even Kolten Grieve's third period go-ahead goal wasn't enough as the Ice Hawks went on to lose 4-3 in double overtime.
The series was scheduled to resume last night back in Ladner with the Ice Hawks desperately trying to swing back the momentum. Game six goes Friday in Abbotsford and a potential game seven looms Saturday in Ladner.
The Ice Hawks coaching staff was extremely upset with their players' effort in game three and game four wasn't much better after they let their determined opponent off the hook.
"Our goal was to sort of put our knee down on their throat tonight and we didn't do it," said head coach Dave McLellan after Saturday's game. "There are no excuses. We just didn't work hard enough. We lost our work ethic and when you don't out work your oppostion you get into a jam.
"We are the better team but are not playing like it. The trend with these kids is they sometimes get ahead of themselves."
The Hawks perhaps thought the Pilots might just roll over given they are heading to the Cyclone Taylor Cup junior "B" provincial championships as the host anyways. However, the Tom Shaw Conference champions are playing like their season is on the line, having outshot Delta in both wins.
"Part of the message we told the players in (the dressing room) is you can't give a team new life and now they know what happens," added McLellan.
"We have played well when we faced with adversity before so maybe that is what this team needs."
Of growing concern, is two of the Ice Hawks top snipers - captain Cody Smith and John Proctor - have yet to score in the series.
