2011/2012 season gets underway with 6-0 shutout

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Photo Courtesy of www.pijhl.com

Welcome back to another season of Richmond Sockeyes Junior B hockey. This year the Richmond Sockeyes home opener had a certain presentation to kick this off. The PIJHL champions banner was raised to the rafters after they had fought 4-0 series win against the Abbotsford Pilots last year.

With the ceremonies finishing up and the players lining up for the opening faceoff the differences started to kick in. Eleven players are returning from last year’s team while there are eleven rookies. The likes of Sebastien Pare, Aaron Oakley, Eli Wiebe and many more are gone. Now we will look forward to Kevan Kilistoff, Troy Kaczynski, Justin Rai, Carter Popoff and Jonah Imoo among others.

Minoru Arena saw its first drop of the puck since Monday, March the 21st in game 3 against the Pilots. This night it was the Mission Icebreakers of the Harold Brittain conference visiting the ice at Richmond.

The rust was clearly evident on the player’s skates early on in this game. There were many sloppy plays around Mission's goalie net with lots of bouncing pucks. But it would be powerplays that finally allowed the game to settle down, Mission had the first powerplay but it proved to be ineffective. The Sockeyes would be the first to capitalize on the man-advantage.

With Kegan Hunter in the box for boarding, Connor Wilson positioned himself in front of the net. Jeremy Hamaguchi grabbed the puck and skated gingerly behind the net, threw the puck on net and Wilson deflected the puck past Simpson for a 1-0 lead. Wilson will go down in the history books as getting the Sockeyes opening goal of the 2011-2012 season.

Then came the second period, with the Sockeyes just crushing the Icebreakers in shots. Rudi Thorsteinson was open on the right side of the net and potted in a rebound on the powerplay for a 2-0 lead. Then came the cardiac kids.

Justin Rai, Carter Popoff and Kevan Kilistoff also known as the "cardiac kids" started to take flight at the midway point of the second period. You could already see the exciting plays that this team generated on countless opportunities throughout the opening two periods. Their first as a line came at the 14:59 mark, just over a minute after the last goal. Kevan Kilistoff sent a saucer pass over the stick of a Icebreakers defenceman right to Carter Popoff and he sent a fluttering shot into the net to end the scoring 3-0 after forty minutes of hockey.

There wasn't much time gone in the third period before that line would once again take control, but it was veteran presence on the line that scored the fourth goal. Jeremy Hamaguchi on a scrambling play put the puck underneath the goaltender to extend the lead even further. 

The goal of the night came off the stick of Justin Rai as he broke in on a breakaway and put a shot post-to-post and in the net. But the play would have never happened had Keenan Webb got the puck to Carter Popoff, who sent a gorgeous two line pass across the red line right to the tape of Justin Rai to spring him. 

Before the night was done Kevan Kilistoff would add another goal for the Sockeyes on a nice single man effort getting the puck down deep, taking it to the front of the net and scoring. That would be all the Sockeyes scoring as they open the season with a strong 6-0 win.

Three stars in the game were Carter Popoff first star with a goal and an assist, Justin Rai, with a goal and two assists. The final star went to Turner Popoff who had an assist and played solid on the backend, stifling the Icebreakers offence.

Richmond will now wait another week before its next game against the newly revamped and relocated North Van Wolf Pack. Richmond was a perfect 6-0 against the Squamish Wolf Pack last year. Gametime will be 7:30 as usual at Minoru arena. If you can't make the game be sure to tune into SockeyesTV at www.richmondsockeyes.com  

Sockeyes end season shutout in Bronze medal game

                                                          

All in all it was an unbelievable season for the Richmond Sockeyes despite this being a "rebuilding" year. Richmond won the Division, league regular season and PIJHL championship and were one win away from making the Provincial Title. Richmond will now look ahead to the 2011-2012 season in which they will look to have the same and even more success.

What essentially was a meaningless game to the Sockeyes at the Cyclone Taylor cup, the Sockeyes were shutout 3-0 by the Osoyoss Coyotes. They had thoughts of gold on their mind but could only see bronze after going 1-2-0 in the round robin and failed to qualify for the gold medal game.

Richmond flew home today to hang up their gear for the last time and close the Sockeyes dressing rooms. They compiled a spectacular 37-5-4 regular season record for 78 points, and first in the league. They had a series sweep of the North Delta Devils, a terrific game 7 showdown with Delta Ice Hawks and a quick 4 game sweep to win the PIJHL championship against the Abbotsford Pilots.

Aaron Oakley came in as the permanent no. 1 goalie around late october and played unbeleivable in net only losing three games all year. Captain Patrick Hunter who had played with four PIJHL franchises settled into a role as captain and led his team to glory in the PIJHL.

What looks promising for this well run organization is that there is only one player who cannot play next year due to age restrictions, Eli Wiebe. He is a 20 year old and cannot return but he left his mark on the team. Wiebe scored the PIJHL championship winning goal against Abbotsford in March and put and end to an illustrious time playing hockey, finishing third on team scoring in the regular season with 42 points. Wiebe collected his 50th goal in the final game of the regular season when he scored a hat-trick, a fitting end to his hockey.

Richmond Sockeyes are set up very well to make a significant push in the post-season next year, depending on who will and wont return. But without a doubt the Sockeyes will once again want to be right back in the mix to win that provincial title and head to the Keystone Cup.

We would like to thank the entire organization for everything they have done, all their hard work and dedication to make this season run so smoothly. From ownership to coaching staff, to the players, fans, volunteers and eveyone behind the scenes, we thank you for a wonderful 2010-2011 season that brought so much success.

See you next September for more exciting PIJHL hockey.

Cheers!

Sockeyes lose two in a row and don't make Gold medal game

                                                       

The Richmond Sockeyes incredible 2010-2011 season will come to an end tomorrow as they face the Osoyoos Coyotes for the Bronze Medal game at the Cyclone Taylor Cup. Richmond lost two in a row in the round robin, 6-2 to Peninsula and 1-0 to host Fernie Ghostriders and fall to third place in the Tournament.

After losing a tough game to the PIJHL champion Peninsula Panthers 6-4 on Friday, and a 1-0 loss tonight the Sockeyes will not be able to make the Gold medal game. Richmond battled extremely hard throughout the tournament but couldn't find a way to score against the Ghostriders in game three. Andrew Walton made 26 saves getting a shutout for his team to send the hometown Ghostriders into the Final versus the PIJHL champion Peninsula Panthers.

Richmond will play for the bronze medal tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. in Fernie against the Osoyoos Coyotes who they beat in the opening game of the tournament 4-3.

All in all this was an unbelievable season for Richmond, winning the Tom Shaw Division, league regular season championship and PIJHL title. But now they will simply look ahead to the Bronze medal game and then return home Monday.