Sockeyes pick up seventh shutout in 4-0 win

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The Sockeyes bounced back after their first loss of the season to defeat the Abbotsford Pilots by a 4-0 score. There were four different Jeremy Hamaguchi, Justin Rai, Rudi Thorsteinson and Keenan Webb all had a goal to lead their goalie Jonah Imoo to his sixth shutout of the season.

Richmond suffered a tough 2-1 loss to Aldergrove and head coach Judd Lambert said that his team just didn't come out to play on Wednesday night. But tonight the real Sockeyes showed their red, black and white colours. As Jeremy Hamaguchi was killing a penalty, he managed to steal the puck from a Pilots defender and came in all alone on former Sockeyes goaltender Aaron Oakley. Oakley made a huge pad save to prevent Hamaguchi from scoring, but he couldn't stop him twice as Hamaguchi potted the rebound into the open net. Oakley was traded to Abbotsford last week for Justin Lachance, a power forward.

In the second period Justin Rai would extend the Sockeyes lead to two goals as Kevan Kilistoff found in him the slot and Rai would wire home his 16th of the season over Oakleys glove.

The Sockeyes power play had proved ineffective up until the late stages of the second period. With a Pilots player in the box, Rudi Thorsteinson would bang home a shot in front s he slid the puck under Oakley for a 3-0 lead to head into the third period.

Abbotsford was unable to mount any kind of a comeback against the Sockeyes, especially after Keenan Webb sent a floater on net that got past the Pilots goalie. He would walk across the blueline and sent a wrist shot over Oakley's blocker to finish the scoring at 4-0 Sockeyes.

Justin Rai also had an assist in the game to tie him with Thomas Hardy for the league scoring lead. Jonah Imoo notched his 6th shutout of the season through just 10 games, his record now stands at 10-0-0.

Scott Wessa connected with a solid hit on Colten Cowden crushing him at the blue line. For some reason the ref handed him a checking to the head penalty and he will now miss the next game with a suspension. From our angle it was a perfectly clean hit.

Next up for the Sockeyes is a Sunday matchup against the Grandview Steelers at the Burnaby Winter Club at 4:00 PM.