The Richmond Sockeyes gave the Delta Ice Hawks a taste of their own medicine to climb right back into their semi-final series.
A pair of power play goals from Arjun Badh and some solid 200-feet hockey led Richmond to a 2-1 game three victory on Tuesday in Ladner. Game four is Thursday at Minoru Arenas (7 p.m.) before the teams return to Delta on Sunday (7:35 p.m.) with the Ice Hawks now leading the best-of-seven affair 2-1.
For easily the two highest scoring teams during the Pacific Junior Hockey League regular season, the series has been all about protecting leads and special teams thus far.
Throw out an empty-netter in game one and each side has yet to score in the third period. Another trend has seen the team in front after 20 minutes go onto to victory each time.
That’s why it was imperative the Sockeyes got off to a good start in a near must-win situation and they did just that.
Badh banged home a rebound to make it 1-0. Defenceman Aiden Hansen-Bukata tied the game on a Delta man advantage but Badh re-stored the Richmond lead with 1:35 left in the second when he again jumped on the loose puck after the initial save by Jordan Naylor.
The Ice Hawks were able to hold final period leads to take games one and two and it was Richmond’s turn this time behind the solid goaltending of Hardy Hoonjan who finished with 24 saves.
“At the start we were preaching you have to play 60 minutes against a good club like this. They come at you full speed right from the puck drop. You have to match that intensity and we did a good job tonight,” said Sockeyes head coach Brett Reusch. “We finally got the first goal of the series and our power play was solid.
“We needed to have that lead going in (to the final 20 minutes). We haven’t scored a third period goal against them and they didn’t allow one in the Grandview series either. We knew we were close. Every game has been one goal so far.”
Ice Hawks head coach Steve Robinson has maintained all along how important it was for his team to stay out of the penalty box against a power play unit he knows all too well. The Sockeyes throw out four 20-year-old forwards — Tyler Andrews, Jordan Funk, Mitch Newsome, Badh‚ along with d-man Jacob Keremidschieff.
“There hasn’t been a clean shot that has beat Naylor. Every goal for us in this series has been a rebound and we just need to keep crashing the net hard. Arjun finally got rewarded. He could have had a couple the last game as well,” added Reusch.
The Ice Hawks are going to have do the same.
They like their chances playing five-on-five but throw out Hansen-Bukuta’s power play tally and they have been held scoreless for nearly 100 minutes of hockey, going back to Jesse Nelson’s goal in the early stages of the second period in game two.
Hoonjan did come up with a terrific cross-crease save off Alex Suprynowicz when the game was tied at 1-1. Suprynowicz also hit crossbar in the third period, while Naylor turned away Andrews on a partial breakaway in the late stages.
Icing…
The Sockeyes welcomed back forward Noah Wozney from the injured list for his first game of the playoffs. He took the place of Brett Gelz who is serving a two-game suspension for his head contact hit on Naylor in game two.
The series could be headed towards a wild finish with games five, six and seven scheduled on consecutive nights, starting Sunday.
