Three-quarters of the way through the 2023/24 PJHL season, the Delta Ice Hawks are sitting solidly in second place in the Tom Shaw Conference.
Delta started the season with a home winning streak of 11 games and have only lost five games in regulation to date, with a 28-5-0-2 record through 35 games.
Twelve players from last year’s championship team returned to the Hawks this season, setting the team up with a strong leadership group.
One of the veterans, Carson Merriman, jumped out to a quick start, tallying 21 points in his first nine games. He is now the current Ice Hawks assists leader and is eying the all-time points leader spot.
Head coach and general manager Steve Robinson called Merriman the team’s “most consistent top performer” until his recent injury that kept him out for six games at the end of December. He added Danylo Bereza has been “a real standout and early favourite for most improved.”
Injuries have been a big storyline for the Ice Hawks, with 17 affiliate players having put on the blue and gold to fill out the roster.
Robinson said their play has been a “silver lining” to the year so far.
Delta was also missing their captain Yuji Akimoto until the first week of December, due to paperwork and visa approvals to make him eligible to play. Fellow defenceman and assistant captain Tye Hemenway helped lead the way on the blue line.
“Hemenway stepped up during Akimoto’s absence and jumped into a top-pair role, performing at a high level defensively and playing at almost a point-per-game pace,” said Robinson.
Robinson said the league bump up to Junior A Tier 2 status hasn’t affected the Hawks’ day-to-day at this point, but the team is “taking small steps in preparation for the move to Junior A Tier 1 within the next one to two seasons,” including working closely with the City of Delta on how to best navigate the change.
He added that he is happy with how the team has done so far and is looking forward to this final stretch of the season.
“Overall, the results have been mainly positive, with some uneven play and lack of consistency,” he said.
“We are hoping to start the new year re-focused on getting healthy and ready for another playoff run to defend our crown as league champions.”
ICE CHIPS:
The Ice Hawks are holding their first-ever Alumni Game on Sunday, Jan. 7, as a part of a dual event with a Tunnel Series game between the Ice Hawks and Richmond Sockeyes later that same day.
The teams will be players born between 1992-1997 against players born in 1998-2002, with many familiar faces from Delta teams past coming back to play in the first Alumni event.
So come on out for a full afternoon and evening of Ice Hawks hockey at the Ladner Leisure Centre, with the Alumni Game going at 4, followed by the Hawks and Sockeyes in another chapter of this season’s Tunnel Series at 7:30 p.m.
