They were one of the few teams in the BC Hockey Major Midget League that had nothing to play for on the last weekend of the regular season.
But that didn’t mean the Valley West Hawks would let up in Nanaimo against the North Island Silvertips.
The Hawks, assured of a third place finish, traveled to Vancouver Island and swept the Silvertips 3-2 and 8-1. They finished the regular season with a 27-11-2 record, setting a team record for most wins in a season and matching the previous best for total points.
Valley West allowed the Silvertips to score twice in the first period and fell behind 2-0, then shut the door over the final 40 minutes of Saturday’s game. Luke Gingras of Langley netted a pair of goals, with Trevor Ayre of Surrey and White Rock’s Matt Barberis drawing assists on both tallies. Surrey forward Matt Bradley also scored for the Hawks.
In Sunday’s blowout win, they took a 3-1 lead into the third period before adding five unanswered goals. Bradley led the way with the hat trick, with Barberis, Gingras, Surrey’s Justin Wilde, Jesse Lansdell of Langley and Devante Stevens adding one each. Stephens, a defenceman from White Rock, also collected a game-high four assists.
The Hawks will host the Cariboo Cougars of Prince George in a best-of-three quarterfinal series this weekend. The first two games are Friday night at 6:15 p.m. at the Langley Sportsplex and Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at the George Preston Rec Centre in Langley. A third game, if necessary, is Sunday morning at 9:45 a.m., also at the George Preston arena.