The Sockeyes wrapped up the regular season with a road trip to Sardis in a match-up that saw the Sockeyes coming away with a 5-2 win over the home town Jets in a contest that had its share of penalties.
This season saw the league increase the regular season games for each club up by one with each team playing 49 with each team playing each other seven times with the Sockeyes outscoring the Jets by a commanding 43-15.
The Sockeyes continue to dominate the shots outshooting all other seven teams hammering 267 outshooting the Jets who finished with 197 shots taking 366 more penalty minutes than the Sockeyes.
Say what you will this season belonged to the Sockeyes from the opening face-off to the final whistle in regular season league play who continued strong aggressive play through all games, home or away.
Playing the final regular season game of the season had some wondering how the game would be played by both teams in part due to the aggressive style of play considering the penalty minutes with the Jets?
The Sockeyes elected to play Haden Heide in net while the Jets went with Keiran Caugharn in a game that would feature their retiring 20 year-old players as did the Sockeyes in a previous game.
Sockeyes Captain Teo Lin opened the scoring at 11:38 with his 21st goal of the season with helpers going to Bryce Strandt and Brody Lindal in a period that saw the Jets outshoot the visiting Sockeyes by a narrow 12-11 margin.
Lin notched his second of the game at 6:53 with helpers to both Strandt and Lindal which was followed by the third of the season from Beaudy Beaudin’s 23rd after an impressive cross pass from Carter Voll and Lukas Hoff.
To no surprise the Jets responded with a pair with the first on the power play at 18:14 and their second at 19:19 with the visitors outshooting the Jets taking a 30-25 lead to the dressing room after forty minutes.
The third wasn’t as aggressive as some thought in a period that saw the visitors dominate play from the opening face-off with Brody Lindal (30) with Lucas Kalman and Nick Kovich grabbing his 18th assist.
The Jets found themselves in penalty trouble allowing Richmond’s Dylan Nazareth (43) to get the final of the game with an aggressive forecheck with Lin and Orr heading home with a 5-2 win.
To no surprise the three stars of the game were given to retiring players who are moving on in the next chapter in their career’s as we wish them all the best.
With the regular season coming to a close the Sockeyes finished with an impressive record of 44 win’s, 5 losses, 267 goals for being stingy only allowing 106 wrapping up with 88 points outdoing last season’s record.
As the coaching staff mentioned “It’s onward and upward” for the third part of the season with the first being pre-season, regular season and no playoff season.
Playoff format in the Tom Shaw Conference has the first place Richmond Sockeyes playing host to the eighth place Burnaby Steelers who finished the season with 29 points through the 49 game schedule.
Finishing first overall allows home ice advantage for the Sockeyes who dominated all areas of the ice utilizing the talent of Haden Heide in goal while the Steelers started their number one tender Remy Quintoro.
To no surprise it was Captain Teo Lin starting the scoring off at 4:57 with an unassisted goal followed by a PP goal with Beaudy Beaudin set up from Nick Kovich and Dylan Nazareth taking a 2-0 lead after the first.
The second period saw the Steelers come up short allowing Sockeyes leading scorer David Yoon to put the home team up by a 3-0 lead with assists to Dylan Nazareth and Brody Lindal dominating the shots after two periods by 28-10.
The third saw the Steelers play more aggressive considering they were unable to not just score but get more shots on goal as they set up a shutout win for Haden Heide getting his first 3-0 shutout win.
Teo Lin (1G/0A) was named the game’s first star, Dylan Nazareth (0G/2A) named second star with Haden Heide named third star turning aside 17 shots he faced for the shutout giving the team a 1-0 series lead.
Game two was two nights later that saw each team utilize the same pair of “tenders” with Sockeyes utilizing Haden Heide with the Steelers starting Remy Quintoro.
Teo Lin opened the scoring with a pair of goals with the first at 11:23 followed by his second at 11:51 a short 28 seconds apart with both Brody Lindal and David Yoon getting assists on both for the early 2-0 lead.
This game started with a controversial start as the Sockeyes were assessed a minor penalty for starting the “Incorrect starting line-up” that someone failed to read the memo from the coaching staff.
As if two assists wasn’t enough David Yoon managed a PP goal at 13:38 from two stretch passes set up from Dylan Nazareth and Michael McIntyre from the back-end for an early 3-0 lead after twenty minutes.
One area the Sockeyes dominant is hammering shots on goal which saw them wrap-up the first outshooting the Steelers by a 22-15 heading into the second controlling all areas of the ice.
As aggressive as both teams played it was David Yoon who gave the home team a 3-0 lead at 13:44 with Teo Lin and Jonathan Zhang setting up what would be the game winning goal giving the Sockeyes a 2-0 series lead.
Game three saw a change of venue playing at the smaller Burnaby Winter Club with all pressure on the Steelers who are looking at getting back in the series with the same starting “tenders” as with the first two.
Richmond simply dominated the game from the opening face-off with five in the first which proved to be enough to take a 3-0 series lead with scoring from five different players outshooting the Steelers by a 44-19 tally.
The Sockeyes look to wrap-up the first round of the playoffs sweeping a series 4-0 advancing to face the winner of the Coastal Tsunami vs Delta Ice Hawks series with dates and times posted on the Richmond Sockeyes website – richmondsockeyes.com
Winning means “TEAM BONDING” as the team attempt their skills at RichmondCurling Club.
