It’s officially game on in the inaugural Tunnel Cup rivalry series.
The Richmond Sockeyes produced their biggest win of the season Tuesday night in Ladner — handing the high-flying Delta Ice Hawks a rare 3-0 loss. The Pacific Junior Hockey League cross-river rivals have now split a pair of regular season meetings with two more to go. More importantly for the Sockeyes, they showed exactly what they are capable of.
A loss would have left Richmond (11-5-1-2) a whopping 15 points back of Delta (18-2-0-0) in the Tom Shaw Conference standings and made the end result of season series a near formality.
“If we didn’t win this game there is no rivalry to be honest,” said Sockeyes head coach Steve Robinson. “The way the season is shaping up how can you even say there is a rivalry when there really isn’t one? One of the messages before the game was there is nothing you should be chirping to these guys about. They have earned our respect and we give them respect.
“Five games can be a fluke. Ten games can be fluke but 19 games with that kind of goal differential (107-38) ain’t no fluke. They are a great team.”
The Sockeyes answered the bell with their most complete game of the season. They rode the goaltending of Hardy Hoonjan to kill off an early Delta two-man advantage then opened the scoring when Connor Kavanagh converted a two-on-one break.
Much of the game was played with either team shorthanded — with 17 power plays in total — and it was the visitors who finally converted their chances with late second period goals from Brett Gelz and Arjun Badh.
That was more than enough for Hoonjan who picked up his second shutout of the season and continues to be one of the league's best stories to date.
The soon-to-be 20-year-old was initially released by the team at training camp and headed to Seafair’s juvenile team.
That was until a high ankle sprain sidelined Jacob Latrace and Hoonjan stepped in to more than fill the void. He eventually earned full-time status with the club and now has a 7-4-1 record with a .915 save percentage.
He made his best stop in the late stages of the second period off Ice Hawk sniper Jordan Deyrmenjian with the score 2-0 at the time.
“Lot of guys would have packed up their toys and left under those circumstances but it’s a testament to his character,” said Robinson who coached Hoonjan at Seafair. “I think we are all pleasantly surprised at just how well he is playing. He is a great kid and very popular with the guys.”
Robinson added the next challenge for his team is build off this performance, starting on Thursday when Port Moody visits Minoru Arenas at 7 p.m.
“Part of our nemesis early has been cherry picking our moments,” he said. “The guys now realize if they work they are as good as anybody in this league. One of things I have been trying to hammer home is that in 18 games this season we have had separation in one. Every other win was by one or two goals. The guys were looking at the 10-5 record but I told them they needed to keep it real.
“The one big grow up factor tonight is you can’t make the same mistakes against this team and expect to win. I think we had our lowest turnovers and our work ethic was consistent for 60 minutes. Now I know they can do it.”
