Richmond Sockeyes fell into an early hole and couldn’t climb out of it in a 4-1 loss to the Delta Ice Hawks Tuesday night at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
The loss, only Richmond’s seventh of the season, also lost them the inaugural Tunnel Cup Series. The Sockeyes had a 2-1 series advantage heading into the contest, but based on total points, they lost the cup as Delta earned a point in Richmond’s 6-5 overtime win earlier in the season.
Delta scored a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the opening frame, forcing Richmond to play catch-up the whole night.
The Sockeyes power play came into the game red hot and it stayed red hot as Jordan Funk scored on a two-man advantage mid-way through the first period.
But any momentum Richmond gained off that goal was short-lived as Alex Suprynowicz scored less than two minutes later to restore Delta’s two-goal lead.
“It’s a good team over there right. You have to come prepared all the time. I think we weren’t prepared right off the get go, got behind in the first period and it was tough to come back,” said coach Brett Ruesch. “There were some good points, we killed off a five-minute power play in the second and momentum kind of swung a bit, but we couldn’t capitalize.”
The second period was a grinding affair, with little flow following a flurry of penalties. That lack of flow also played a factor in Richmond’s inability to get back in the contest, said Ruesch.
“Too many penalties in my opinion. It’s tough to gain any momentum,” he said.
Mark Epshtein closed out the scoring for the Ice Hawks in the third.
Delta outshot Richmond 41-23.
Ruesch said his team has to forget about this one in a hurry and move on as they finish out their regular season.
“You want to finish the season strong and carry that into the playoffs. That’s the goal for us now – finish strong,” he said.
Icing…
Richmond needs just one point in its remaining five league games or a loss by North Vancouver to clinch second place in the Shaw Conference standings.
On Saturday, the Sockeyes are in North Van for a tilt against the Wolf Pack and return home for its final regular season game Feb. 8 when they host the Abbotsford Pilots.
