The Delta Ice Hawks will be hoping for more of the same from a couple of South Delta Minor Hockey grads as they prepare for another potential tunnel series.
Goaltender Alex Anhert and forward Jeremy Gossard had leading roles in the Ice Hawks opening round sweep of the North Vancouver Wolf Pack that was more difficult than the scoreboard suggests.
Anhert wrestled away the number one spot in net from Scott Lapp with some solid play during stretch run of the regular season and he hasn't looked back since.
The 19-year-old produced a sparkling .949 save percentage in the series, highlighted by a 39-save performance in game three. He made 24 more stops in Sunday's 2-1 clinching win at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
"Alex has been great for us the last two nights," said Ice Hawks assistant coach Bayne Koen who did not want to go into detail of the club's decision to go with the Ladner native. "We will need him playing at the same level in the next round and Scott has to be ready too. He understands the team comes first."
The Wolf Pack did an effective job of shutting down sniper Mak Barden as the Pacific International Junior Hockey League scoring champion was limited to just two assists in the series. Picking up the slack was Gossard, who managed three goals, including a pair in Saturday's 2-1 game three win. The 19-year-old, who is more known for his gritty two-way play, had seven goals in 30 regular season games.
"Third and fourth lines are huge for hockey teams come playoff time and those guys came up big for us," continued Koen. "We know teams are going to play our top lines hard. We need those character guys if we are going to make a long playoff run.
"North Vancouver gave us a heck of a fight. We knew they would come hard at us every night and they would not quit. Our top guys have to be prepared for those tough match-ups and they got some time to re-group and get ready for what's going to be an even bigger challenge in the next round."
The Ice Hawks are poised to renew their rivalry with the Richmond Sockeyes who will be looking to sweep aside the North Delta Devils tonight at Minoru Arena.
The teams have met the past four years in the Tom Shaw Conference finals with each winning twice. This season's regular season series also was a deadlock (3-3).
The best-of-seven series will start this weekend at the earliest.
Icing... While most of the Ice Hawks top forwards struggled to find the net, Aaron Merrick did not, finishing with five goals, including a hat trick on Friday.
