New Goalie

With the recent departure of Sockeyes starting goalie Jonah Imoo it left an open spot on the roster to be filled. Sockeyes GM Richard Petrowsky was able to find six foot one, 20 year old, Maple Ridge native Tyler Klassen.

We would like to wish Jonah Imoo all the best as he becomes the Powell River Kings backup goaltender for the remainder of the season in the BCHL. Hopefully Imoo will go far as a goaltender for the Kings. For Richmond he was part of the unbelievable 14-0-0 run to start the season along with six shutouts shared with Kootenay Alder. Imoo had four shutouts in his first four games and finished with a 16-2-0 record, 1.26 GAA, and 6 shutouts.

But now it will be Tyler Klassen and Kootenay Alder leading the Sockeyes into the post-season this year. With 10 games still left in the season the Sockeyes need just 6 wins to clinch 1st place in the PIJHL regular season.


Tyler Klassen brings in size and agility to the goaltending position. He comes in with statistics that do not look great going 0-6, with a 5.91 GAA, but that was with a tough Ridge Meadow Flames team that has only won seven games all year.

Klassen certainly got his tenure with the Sockeyes started off well defeating the Grandview Steelers 8-0 and picking up the shutout in the process. he stopped 21 shots along the way to his first victory for the Fish.

The Sockeyes are still waiting to get back injured forwards Rudi Thorsteinson and Justin Rai. When those two players return this is a team poised for greatness this year in the PIJHL.

Sockeyes next game will be Thursday January 19th versus the Port Moody Black Panthers at the Minoru Arena. Sockeyes are 3-0 against them this year, if you can't make it to the game you can catch the action on SockeyesTV at www.richmondsockeyes.com Pre-game at 7:!5, puckdrop at 7:30.

Sockeyes stand strong in tough 2-1 win

                                       vs.                   


In what may be a future playoff series showdown in the Tom Shaw Conference, the two top PIJHL engaged in a surprisingly defensive battle. Richmond could only manage to get two goals into the net, but it was enough for a 2-1 victory and a four point PIJHL standings lead.


Coming into the game Richmond was on a bit of a snide after losing two of their last three games. This after losing only one game of their first twenty-one games. While the Ice Hawks came in red hot, winners of six straight and eight of their last nine games. Their only loss in that span was to Richmond back on November 22nd a 5-1 loss.


Normally these two offensively skilled teams engage in a scoring showdown, after all the Ice Hawks and Sockeyes are the two top scoring teams in the PIJHL as well. But this game was a battle of goaltenders. Former North Delta Devils goalie Alex Ahnert for the Ice Hawks and Jonah Imoo, the leagues top goalie for the Sockeyes.


Jonah Imoo, who went undefeated in his thirteen game, was in net for the two losses to the Devils. In this game he played unbelievable making 33 saves for the win. There were two absolutely huge opportunities for the Ice Hawks to take the lead, the first was a shorthanded penalty shot awarded to Aaron Merrick after he was hauled down. Merrick came in and fired a shot on net in close, but Imoo was there to stand tall and make the save to keep in scoreless. The best chance though was a 2 on 1 late in the game where Imoo made one of the biggest kick saves ever to keep the game deadlocked. This was undoubtedly a "save-of-the-year" candidate.


On the Ice Hawks side, back-up goalie Alex Ahnert was just as good in net for Delta, he made 40 saves. Ahnert kept the game close and made key stops on Sockeyes rushes to preserve the 0-0 score. It wasn't until 9:07 of the third period that he was finally able to be beaten. On an elbowing penalty to  Mark Whiteley, the Sockeyes went to their sixth power play, they didn't capitalize on their first five. This time though they wouldn't make that mistake. After a faceoff win and some movement inside the Ice Hawks zone. Ryan Copper made a huge play to step to the point after playing forward. Cooper held the line in defense of his defense and got the puck right to Kevan Kilistoff and he snuck inside the circle and ripped a shot past Ahnert for a 1-0 lead, second assist went to Mike Ball.


The game looked like it had been a case of whoever scored first would win, and as the time was winding down it appeared that way. But the Ice Hawks had other ideas as PIJHL leading scorer Spencer Traher tipped home an Anthony Brito shots that got past Imoo to tie the game with under four minutes left.


So once again we were heading to overtime...or so we thought. Just twenty-four seconds later. Sockeyes newest player and defenseman Dylan Smith got the puck at the point and slapped home his first PIJHL goal and it was the game winner. The puck came off his stick and got deflected past Ahnert with 3:25 left in the game. The Sockeyes would run out the clock and take a 2-1 win for a four point PIJHL lead, and have two games at hand on the Delta Ice Hawks.


In four games against the Ice Hawks, Richmond has won all four and outscored their Massey Tunnel rivals 15-7.


A big shoutout to Dylan Smith who comes from the North American Hockey Leagues Dawson Creek Rage. He had previously played in Sicamous, Lloydminster, and Salmon Arm. He is a North Delta Minor Hockey League player and we look forward to seeing what he brings to the Sockeyes backend.


Richmond will now play North Vancouver Wolf Pack on Saturday at the Harry Jerome Arena. Their next home game will be Thursday the 22nd against the Grandview Steelers, if you can't make it to the game you can catch it on the web on SockeyesTV pregame show at 7:15 www.richmondsockeyes.com 

Sockeyes pick up seventh shutout in 4-0 win

                                      VS              

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.