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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
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