A Kootenay road block has ended the Delta Ice Hawks’ quest to win the Cyclone Taylor Cup in Revelstoke.
The Pacific Junior Hockey League champions saw their gold medal hopes dashed Saturday night with a 5-2 loss to the host Revelstoke Grizzlies to conclude round-robin play. It marked the second time Delta has lost to a club from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League in the four-team tournament after being edged 2-1 in overtime by champions Kimberley Dynamiters to open play on Thursday.
Revelstoke will now meet Kimberley in an all-KIJHL gold medal game at 5 p.m. today. The Ice Hawks will play Vancouver Island champions Oceanside Generals for bronze at noon in a battle of 1-2 teams.
Delta’s bid to be in the gold medal game for the third time in five years looked promising when a pair of early second period goals from PJHL rookie-of-the-year Brayden Sinclair and captain Alec Scouras gave their team a 2-1 lead.
The Hawks seemed poised to take that advantage into the final period when Will McPhee produced a huge goal to tie the game just 37 seconds away from the intermission.
The hosts took momentum into the third and David Coyle scored what proved to be the game winner at the 1:17 mark. Carter Bettenson and Jake Wallace added insurance tallies, much to the delight of the sellout crowd,
The Grizzlies outshot Delta 18-8 in the third period with goaltender Merik Erickson making 41 stops on the night.
