Richmond Sockeyes Blog: Sockeyes are National champions with 5-2 win over Saskatoon

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For the second time in five years the Richmond Sockeyes are your Keystone Cup National champions. Richmond won the Keystone Cup by defeating the Saskatchewan Representative Saskatoon Royals out of the Prairie Junior Hockey league by a 5-2 score.

Richmond came into this game with the possibility of doing what only Vermilion Tigers(2), Kinistino Tigers(3), Columbia Valley Rockies(2), Lloydminster Bandits(2) and Assiniboai Southern Rebels(2) winning more than one Keystone Cup. In 2009 Richmond defeated the K & A Wolverines in double OT to win the cup, this time a strong second period gave Richmond the 5-2 win.

Richmond was a perfect 5-0 in the round robin and continued to show their offensive dominance. In the tournament Richmond was able to outscore its opponents 44-12 and outshoot them 264-125. Those are absolutely incredible stats for any team. The Sockeyes have also been tied or leading a game for 860 minutes of hockey in 900 minutes. The only times that the Sockeyes were down since game 6 of the Tom Shaw Final was in game 1 of Cyclone to Victoria, gold medal game against Victoria, and briefly to Saskatoon Royals and Thunder Bay Northern Hawks.

The Saskatoon Royals wanted revenge after a crushing 10-2 defeat at the hands of the Sockeyes earlier iin the round robin. The Royals started this game off much better as for the first time all tournament the Sockeyes were held without a goal in a period. Both sides would head to the dressing rooms tied 0-0 with Richmond barely ending in shots 15-13. Royals goalie Jay Hudon who was named the tournaments best goalie was playing fantastic in this game, had it not been for him the Sockeyes would have destroyed Saskatoon.

The second period was a completely different game for both teams, Saskatoon lost some of the drive they had and only registered 4 shots while the Sockeyes were able to take 24 shots and score 3 goals for a 3-0 lead into the second period. The game was tense at times and Sockeyes AP Austin Adamson gave Richmond a breath of fresh air opening the scoring at 6:09 of the second period. The puck came to him out front off a nice centering feed from Rudi Thorsteinson and Adamson buried it. This goal for Adamson added to the already succesful time he has had with Richmond. he first played with Richmond against the Delta Ice Hawks amd has looked solid ever since. Danton Heinen would score his fourth goal of the tournament in stunning fashion as he put the puck right through a defenders legs and sent a gorgeous backhand behind Hudon to give Richmond some separation. Before the period was out with just over a minute left, 20 year old Jake Roder got on the board with a superb tip through Hudon's legs for the 3-0 lead. Richmond was in full control knowing they just need another good 20 minutes of hockey to become champions.

Richmond played a very defensive third period just trying to get the clock to run out and they executed that perfectly. Rudi Thorsteinson extended the lead to 4 at 1:28 of the third period as Richmond kept pressing. Kootenay Alder who was 4-0 in the tournament had a good game making 29 saves in the win. He wasn't beaten until 6:53 of the third period when Saskatoon's Nathan Allen got the puck behind him. Danton Heinen added one more to extend his goals to five in the tournament. In a desperate attempt to get back into the game the Royals played with six skaters for the final six minutes of play trying to get their offence going. They did manage to score by jamming the puck in with just 1:04 remaining but that only made it 5-2.

Time would slowly tick away as the players were just waiting to clear onto the ice for the celebration. Time ran down to 0.0 and the Richmond Sockeyes were National champions defeating Saskatoon 5-2. They surrounded Kootenay Alder in utter jubilation as they can say there is no better Junior B team in Canada.

Jake Roder was named player of the game for his efforts getting the game-winning goal and an assist. Hayden Cameron was the player of the game for Saskatoon. As the celebration changed to handshakes the teams lined up on the blueline for the tournament awards. Richmond would receive three of them as Rudi Thorsteinson won the tournaments leading scorer and tournament mvp with 11 goals and 5 assists, while the Richmond Sockeyes were the most sportsmanlike team.

After things had settled the St. Malo hosts brought in the Keystone Cup and laid it onto the table awaiting Sam Chichak. Chichak came over and raised it high into the air and the Sockeyes celebrated their teams second national title.

Richmond's record was mighty this year only 11 games, here is their record in the 2012-2013 hockey season. Regular season 32-8-0-4, Playoffs 12-3, Cyclone Taylor Cup 4-0, Keystone Cup 6-0, Total 54-11-0-5

A huge congratulations for this year has to go to all the people in this organization that made things run so proficiently and smoothly all season. Starting from the top with oweners, Doug Paterson, Bruce Mathers, Maurice Lambert, Barry Watson and assistant coach and owner Ronnie Paterson. Richard Petrowsky the Sockeyes GM works tirelessly to build this team, and he deserves a huge amount of gratitude The coaching staff or Aaron Wilbur and late addition Rajan Sidhu. The trainer Cam Smith, statistician Craig, videographer Brian. Volunteer staff Tina O'connor, Mas Morimoto, and all the volunteers and workers for the proud Junior B franchise. This organization could not be run without all of you. Thank you all so much and congratulations the the 2012/2013 Tom Shaw regular season champions, PJHL regular season champions, Tom Shaw Conference champions, PJHL champions, Cyclone Taylor Cup champions and Keystone Cup champions.

2013 Keystone Cup team statistics.

PLAYER STATISTICS

#	PLAYER NAME	P	GP	G	A	PTS	P/G	PP	SH	GW	PIM
15	Rudi Thorsteinson	F	6	11	5	16	2.7	4	0	0	2
9	Danton Heinen	F	6	5	7	12	2.0	0	0	0	2
24	Jake Roder	F	6	4	8	12	2.0	2	0	0	4
19	Daniell Lange	F	6	5	6	11	1.8	1	0	0	2
8	Jeremy Hamaguchi	F	6	4	7	11	1.8	0	0	0	0
42	Stephen Campbell	F	6	4	2	6	1.0	1	0	0	4
16	Liam Lawson	F	6	2	3	5	0.8	0	0	0	0
18	Sam Chichak	F	6	1	4	5	0.8	1	0	0	4
6	Adam Nishi	D	5	0	5	5	1.0	0	0	0	0
4	Dominic Centis	D	4	2	2	4	1.0	1	0	0	6
26	Scott Wessa	D	6	1	3	4	0.7	0	0	0	32
5	Matthew Wagner	D	6	0	4	4	0.7	0	0	0	31
21	Dean Allison	F	6	2	1	3	0.5	0	0	0	4
23	Justin White	F	6	1	2	3	0.5	0	0	0	2
27	Jordan Andrews	D	5	1	2	3	0.6	0	0	0	4
17	Austin Adamson	F	6	1	1	2	0.3	0	0	0	2
3	Eben Norman	D	5	0	1	1	0.2	0	0	0	20
22	Daniel Tait	F	4	0	1	1	0.3	0	0	0	2
7	Derek Hughes	D	2	0	1	1	0.5	0	0	0	0
10	Trevor Lima	D	3	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	2
44	Bret Higham	F	2	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
11	Trevor Stack	D	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
	TEAM TOTALS			44	65	109	-	10	0	-	123