After being on the ropes for about 42 minutes, the Richmond Sockeyes promptly swept aside the Grandview Steelers in their Pacific Junior Hockey League quarter-final series.
The Steelers finished a whopping 31 points behind the regular season champions but did enjoy a surprising 3-0 third period lead in game one last Thursday. However, the Sockeyes stormed back to win 4-3 in overtime and dominated the rest of the way. They closed out the series with a 7-2 win Wednesday night after earlier 5-0 and 3-1 triumphs. Richmond now awaits the winner of the North Vancouver Wolf Pack/Delta Ice Hawks series which is currently tied at 2-2.
It was a pair of rookie standouts who launched and completed the game one comeback. A power play goal by John Wesley got the hosts on the board and an unassisted effort by 17-year-old Ayden
MacDonald at 1:58 of overtime ended the overtime.
Veteran blueliner Dominic Centis tied the game at 3-3 with just 31 seconds remaining. Cole Plotnikoff had the other goal.
The Sockeyes took the momentum into game two and rolled to the comfortable win behind the shutout goaltending of Kurt Russell, who made 29 saves. Matthew
Bissett led the way with a pair of goals, while affiliate Troy Kaczynski, Nicholas Patey and Plotnikoff also scored.
Game three on Sunday afternoon in Burnaby saw the Sockeyes take a 1-0 lead into the third period and seal the victory on an empty goal by MacDonald. Local product Jacob Wozney scored what proved to be the game winner, while Mac Colasimone had the other.
