The Richmond Sockeyes have responded to their first taste of adversity this season with a pair of big road efforts, including a convincing victory in Ladner on Tuesday night to take control of the Tunnel Cup series.
The visitors scored three unanswered goals en route to a 6-2 win over the Delta Ice Hawks to improve to 10-3-1-1. Richmond can secure the Tunnel Cup when the teams meet again on Nov. 22 at Minoru Arenas.
The impressive performance came after rallying from a two-goal deficit in Ridge Meadows on Friday for a 3-2 overtime triumph that snapped a three-game winless streak.
“We did have a rough go of it there but I think it had a little to do (with an unbeaten September) after everybody thought we weren’t going to be the team we were last year,” said Sockeyes head coach Brett Reusch. “It was a bit of a wake-up call.
“We came here with a game plan and we executed it. I thought it was a great road game for us. We have a lot of games coming up (four in eight days) and I’m really pleased with tonight’s outcome.”
It was an impressive debut for Noah Kelly — the 19-year-old forward acquired from Nanaimo of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League last week. The Greater Vancouver Canadians alumni opened the scoring then added another in the early stages of the second period to give Richmond a 3-1 lead.
The Hawks pulled back within a goal on the second of the night for Daniel Rubin but could not beat goaltender Jeremy Kelleway again while Hayden Hurst and Brady Sprague gave Richmond a commanding 5-2 lead after 40 minutes.
“Noah is a talented player and you could see that tonight,” added Reusch. “We did have a few defensive lapses where our goaltending bailed us out but (Kelleway) has been doing that all season for us.
“You can never get too high playing against Delta. They are a good team that can score in bunches but we stuck to our game plan and it’s nice to see everything coming together.”
The Ice Hawks paid the price for too many defensive breakdowns and odd-man rushes as they tried to get back in the game.
“Guys were pressing to make an impact and score goals but it can actually make it worse and it doesn’t seem to matter how much you tell them that,” said Hawks GM and head coach Steve Robinson. “In high emotion games it’s usually the team that makes the least mistakes that wins and they came in here and played well tonight.”
Robinson was not pleased with the way his team responded to the adversity in the third period, resulting in a parade to the penalty box for a number of his key veteran players.
“I wanted to see a mature pushback rather than that unravelling. (Leading scorer Alex Suprynowicz) gets smoked on the wall on what I think was a good hit and Rubin reacts to it and gets a (10 minute misconduct). ‘Super’ then drops a chirp and gets a 10 too. At one point I had five different offensive guys in the box.
“We are down 5-2 and 6-2 and we are chirping their bench. For me, that part is embarrassing. Sometimes you just have to eat it and say today just wasn’t our day. Tip your hat to them and say they were ready to play tonight and we made too many mistakes to win the game.”
The Sockeyes are back in action Thursday when Mission City visits Minoru at 7 p.m. They then have a rare Sunday night home game when Ridge Meadows is in town at 5:30 p.m.
