Richmond Sockeyes are Pacific Junior Hockey League regular season champions for the fifth time in six years and it took a near perfect run over the last three months to pull it off.
The Sockeyes defeated the North Delta Devils 6-3 on Saturday night to finish with a 34-5-2-3 record and set-up an opening round playoff match-up with the Grandview Steelers, starting on Thursday at Minoru Arena (7 p.m.). Since Nov. 7, Richmond has lost just twice but it still took until the final week of the regular season to edge out the Aldergrove Kodiaks for league honours.
Richmond produced three wins in a five day stretch, starting with a 3-2 overtime road triumph against the Delta Ice Hawks, before rallying for a 6-4 win over Grandview last Thursday.
The best-of-seven series with the Steelers looks like a mismatch on paper with the Steelers (18-20-4-2) having finished 31 points back of the Sockeyes and dropping five of six games in the series. However, the defending champions won’t have the services of arguably the league’s best goalie for the entire first round.
Veteran Kootenay Alder received a nine game suspension from B.C. Hockey for his involvement in a second period fight during the win over Delta. The 20-year-old was initially accessed a five-minute major, along with a gross misconduct and a game misconduct. Alder had a 25-3 record this season with a league best goals against average (2.03) and save percentage .933). Rookie Kurt Russell will fill the void. The 17-year-old from Surrey was 9-2-1 this season with a 2.63 GAA and a .900 save percentage.
Rookies John Wesley and Ayden MacDonald led the way against North Delta with two goals each. Wesley then made his Western Hockey League debut Sunday in the Vancouver Giants 7-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers at the Pacific Coliseum. The 16-year-old signed with the WHL club two weeks ago. He led all rookie scorers in the PJHL this season with 57 points in 44 games, including 27 goals, to ranked fifth overall in the league. MacDonald, 17, also enjoyed an outstanding freshman campaign, finishing 12th in league scoring with 43 points and 26 goals.
Icing...
Game two of the Sockeyes/Steelers series goes at 5:45 p.m. on Saturday before the series shifts to the Burnaby Winter Club for games three and four on Sunday and Wednesday.
