Shorthanded Sockeyes splash past Flames

It was a battle of the best and worst of their respective conferences when the Sockeyes hosted the Ridge Meadows Flames.

It was a short bench for both teams; the Flames had three players out to suspension. The Sockeyes were worse for wear as they had to play without three of their most potent goal scorers. Quinton Blois and Mac Colasimone were both out for injuries, while Troy Kaczynski was serving the first of a two-game suspension he earned with a check from behind against the Ice Hawks last Thursday.

Despite having the league’s worst road power-play, the Flames capitalised on their first man-advantage of the game. With Sutherland in the box for roughing, Boston Colley put home a rebound chance past Alalouf to open the scoring.

The Flames extended their lead in the 2nd period, when Halen Cordoni ripped up the left wing and sniped Alalouf top-left.

The Sockeyes power-play converted when Jordan andrews beat Kurt Klimek on a nifty feed from Trevor Lima. This brought Richmond within a goal, but only for a moment. The Flames rushed back up up the ice and Dale Howell finished it off to retake the two-goal lead.

That was it for Alalouf’s night, who allowed 3 goals on 16 shots.

Kurt Russell came into the game and held the Sockeyes in the game until Jake Wozney put a backhand from in tight upstairs to put the Sockeyes within one before the period expired.

With a scramble in front of the Flames net in the third, the puck squeaked back to the point. J. Andrews took a slapshot that went five-hole on Klimek to tie the game up at 3-3.

Sockeyes put heavy pressure on Klimek throughout the final 40 minutes but the Flames’ goaltender was on his game. He made two huge saves on clean breakaways from Brodie Crawford and Andrew Bissett to keep the game even.

Klimek ran into trouble when a scramble in front knocked his stick loose. With a defender’s stick in hand, a shot from Ryan Jones deflected off a Flames defender and past Klimek to put the Sockeyes up by one.

Wozney scored off a shot that looked a lot more like a pass. It bounced off a defender’s skate and snuck past Klimek to put the game away.

Kurt Russell was fantastic in relief, stopping all 12 shots he faced for the win. J. Andrews and Wozney each tallied twice to carry the shorthanded Sockeyes to victory, 5-3 the final.

Sockeyes stifled by Outlaws defense

In the first home game of the new year, the Sockeyes hoped they could extract some revenge on the Mission City Outlaws on Thursday night. The Outlaws scored three goals in under three minutes in their only other meeting this season en route to a 5-3 win.

Despite having played the previous night, the Sockeyes jumped out to a quick start, as Tyler Paterson tapped a pass from Troy Kaczynski into a gaping net under a minute into the game.

The pace of the game slowed drastically following the goal, as the period ended with the lone goal and only 13 total shots.

The Sockeyes have been juggernauts on the power-play this season, but it was the Outlaws who won the special teams battle. They killed off all five Sockeyes penalties, and scored a goal on the power-play when a point shot from Ram Brar deflected off Brody Dyck’s arm past Sockeyes tender Nathan Alalouf

Mission’s top line was dangerous throughout, and Bryce Pisiak scored his team-leading 28th and 29th goals of the season.

Down 3-1 in the final ten minutes of the game, the Sockeyes finally solved Bryce Phenix a second time when Kaczynski snapped a wrist shot along the ice under the Outlaws netminder.

With nine seconds remaining on the clock, and trailing 3-2, Kaczynski rushed up the ice after a defensive zone face-off win and split the defense for a breakaway. Phenix stayed with him, putting an exclamation point on a 30-save performance with a left pad save with only a single second remaining.

Richmond rallied late, but came up short as they dropped their 2nd home game to Mission this season with a final score of 3-2.

- Bailey Meadows