The Richmond Sockeyes are taking advantage of the closest thing you will ever see to a homestand in the Pacific Junior Hockey League.
Richmond (18-9-3-5) rolled to a 9-1 victory over the Surrey Knights on Monday night. Thanks to hosting last week’s PJHL Winter Classic, it was the Sockeyes’ fourth consecutive game at Minoru Arena and they will be back in action again Thursday when the Abbotsford Pilots visit at 7 p.m. They are in the midst of playing seven of eight games on home ice which is a rarity over a 44-game regular season.
So far, the Sockeyes have picked up six of a possible eight points as they are in a dogfight for the top three positions in the PJHL Tom Shaw Conference with just nine games remaining. They are two points back of second place Grandview and three behind front-running Delta with three head-to-head battles still looming.
Richmond took full advantage of playing a remarkably still winless Knights team (0-33-0-2) for the second time within a week after also handing them a 4-1 loss back on Jan. 3 to close out the Winter Classic.
“There are nine very competitive teams in the league this year and you can’t afford to look past Surrey either,” said Sockeyes head coach Judd Lambert. “You need to come to play every night.”
Lambert and general manager Richard Petrowsky have been relatively patient with their line-up all season.
The club has made two additions prior to the league’s Jan. 10 roster deadline — welcoming back local blueliner Matt Brown from the B.C. Hockey League’s Surrey Eagles and signing forward Trevor Townsend to full-time status. The 17-year-old was Cloverdale Midget A1 team’s top scorer at the recent Richmond International Bantam Midget Tournament.
What they are counting on is a boost when captain Tyler Andrews returns to the line-up sometime this month.
It’s been a injury-plagued season for the 19-year-old who has played in just nine games. His latest setback was on a nasty hit from Mission’s Holden Wilkerson that resulted in extensive dental work. Wilkerson has since been suspended for the balance of the season.
Andrews is part of a veteran group of forwards that is being called upon to look after the scoring load. Nineteen year-olds Brodie Crawford (22 goals), Brett Gelz (28 points) and Arjun Badh (28 points) are all enjoying productive campaigns, while sophomore 18-year-olds Connor Alderson (37 points) and Alex McLeod (19 goals) are also providing offensive punch.
The team’s MVP to date, however, is 18-year-old rookie netminder Marek Pipes who has been superb since taking over the bulk of the crease work in mid-November. The Sockeyes had traded for Jacob Latrace but the Seafair product was unable to make a full commitment due to his course load as an engineering student at UBC.
Pipes has responded to the workload by leading the league in goals against (2.04), save percentage (.935) and shutouts (four). He is part of an outstanding group of freshmen goalies in the league this season.
“Marek has been very good and we need him to be, quite frankly, because we don’t score a lot of goals,” added Lambert. “We made a concerted effort to go with a younger goalie this season and try to roll with it. He has really stepped up for us.”
What could play a large part in the Sockeyes’ destiny over the balance of the season is their power play. It ranks third in the league but can be feast or famine at times. In a big 6-3 win in Abbotsford prior to Christmas, it connected on four of six chances, highlighted by a pair of goals in 40 seconds that broke the game open. However, it went 0-for-7 in a 5-4 overtime loss to Aldergrove to open the Winter Classic, including a lengthy two-man advantage.
“We are just looking for a little bit more consistency,” added Lambert. “The difference is we need everyone on the same page. If they are all working together, we are good. When we try to make plays before properly setting up, we are going to struggle. All five players have to be committed.”
