A congratulation is in order for the 2011-2012 Richmond Sockeyes for finishing first place in the PIJHL just like last year. This years team was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but clearly not so. With some solid acquisitions from GM Richard Petrowsky, great coaching from Judd Lambert and company, superb goaltending and an offence that couldn't be stopped, meant the Sockeyes are number 1.
In a season where they started off with a 6 game shutout streak and 14 game undefeated streak the Richmond Sockeyes still somehow had to leave it until the final few games to solidify their place as first in the PIJHL. They clinched this with a strong 3-1 showing at the Ladner Leisure centre defeating the Delta Ice Hawks. The rivalry was not as fierce as one would have originally thought going into this season as the Sockeyes won five of six games with their cross tunnel rivals. This year the Sockeyes had strong showings all year. Their only loss to the Hawks was a 3-2 score back on December 20th 2011.
A big reason for their success was their ability to play unbelievable offence all year despite the loss of Justin Rai for 17 games and 75 days, Rudi Thorsteinson for a better part of the season and not having Kyzen Loo for nearly all home games during the first half of the season. Yet somehow they still lead the league in power plays, penalty killing, goals, goals against, wins, points, shots and least amount of losses...all season long! This year the Sockeyes could be the only team in the league to hit twenty wins and have a ten point lead on their closest opponent the Ice Hawks.This is all thanks in large part to having a balanced scoring attack from the first line to the third line, including having three players in the top five scoring race and four players in the top ten. Two of those aforementioned players are rookies as well in Kevan Kilistoff and Carter Popoff, Rai would have certainly been in the mix had he not been injured considering he is twentieth in scoring having missed 17 games.Goals were easy to come by for Richmond and they owe it to the balanced attack and a strong power play.
Goaltending was never an issue all season, especially considering there were 11 shutouts in 42 games, 6 by Imoo(who departed for the BCHL's Powell River Kings), 2 from Kootenay Alder and 2 for newcomer Tyler Klassen. All three goalies in their time with the Sockeyes had a goals against average of under 2.0 which clearly shows why the Sockeyes had the least amount of goals scored against. It is never easy losing your starting goaltender when Imoo left, but Alder and Klassen stepped up to lead the Sockeyes to this first place finish.
Now comes the real test for the Sockeyes, the real push, the playoff push. It will get started fairly soon and it is still yet to be decided who they will play, either way they will have had a strong season against both the Grandview Steelers and North Van Wolf Pack, going 6-0 versus the Pack and 5-0 versus Grandview so far with one game left to play. But you can't think about the regular season because anything can happen come playoff time. There is also the fact that they could potentially face the North Delta Devils in the second round, why is this important? Because the Devils are the only team to have beaten Richmond more than once, they did it three times, including twice in the span of nine days.
It is safe to say that this is a team that can make a push for the PIJHL championship, it is not a stretch to say Cyclone Taylor Cup as well or even Keystone. But for now it is a matter of just winning one game at a time in their 2012 playoff push.
Be sure to tune in to hear the Richmond Sockeyes last regular season broadcast versus the Ridge Meadow Flames at Minoru Arena. 7:15 pre-game show, 7:30 puck drop, tune in to SockeyesTV http://www.richmondsockeyes.com/
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