For the better part of two games it looked oh so promising for the Richmond Devils at the B.C. Women’s “A” Hockey Championships. Instead, the hosts saw their title hopes dashed sooner than they had hoped.
The Devils bowed out of the six-team event with a 5-2 quarter-final loss to the Meadow Ridge Moose on Saturday night. They looked to be in good shape when goals by Simran Sidhu and captain Alex Yallouz gave them a 2-1 lead with eight minutes remaining in the second period.
However, the Moose tied the game less than two minutes later then exploded for three goals in the final period to seal Richmond’s fate.
Earlier in the day, the Devils experienced similar heartbreak in a 2-1 loss to eventual silver medalist Kamloops Blaze.
Despite being dominated in the shot department, the Devils took a 1-0 lead over their powerhouse opponent when Jody Wong buried a feed from Alex Yallouz into the top corner in the late stages of the second period. The score stayed that way until the Vipe pulled even on a power play goal with 6:42 remaining. Kamloops then notched the winner just over two minutes later to clinch top spot in its group.
Kasey Schell was terrific in the Devils net, stopping 26 shots as her team was outshot 28-7.
Richmond had opened the championships with a 21 win over the Fraser Valley Jets on goals by Danika Carter and Nicole Lim. Alana Carswell made 21 saves.
The season concluded Sunday morning with a 3-1 consolation loss to the Victoria Phantoms. Lim scored for the Devils as Victoria broke a 1-1 tie with a pair of late goals, including an empty netter.
South Fraser TNT defeated Kamloops for their first provincial title.
