As the Richmond community rallies for the Humboldt community following the deadly crash of the Humboldt Broncos team bus last week, a few dedicated hockey souls from Lulu Island may recall a spirited championship run by the Richmond Sockeyes in 1987, in the heart of Saskatchewan — one that speaks to the two community's passion for the game .
Then a Junior A team, the Sockeyes squared off in a heated seven game series against the Humboldt Broncos in the Abbott Cup (Western Canada Junior A championship) and won. They then went on to Humboldt, the host town of the national Junior A championship Centennial Cup (now the Royal bank Cup).
Humboldt initially exacted revenge on the Sockeyes in the Centennial Cup round robin, with a 6-1 win, which marked the eighth time in a matter of weeks that the teams met with spirited play and intense gamesmanship.
Both teams won their semi-final games and met for a ninth time in the Cup finals, a winner take all.
In a 2012 Richmond News feature on the Sockeyes' history, former Sockeye Dave Tomlinson, now a Canucks radio analyst for Team 1040, recalled the game.
“I scored the first goal of the game, which was nice, but I remember it was a very charged atmosphere,” said Tomlinson.
“It was in their rink, and the previous series had gone to seven games. We were the enemy in there, but we never really let up.
“It was one of those games where we just kept pounding away.”
Despite the described "hostility" of a passionate home Saskatchewan crowd and facing the country’s other powerhouse (Red Deer) that year, the Sockeyes, coached by former Vancouver Canucks Orland Kurtenbach, prevailed and ran out of town as comfortable 5-2 winners of Canada’s top Junior A prize.
“We had an awesome team; it was a wonderful, wonderful time,” Tomlinson said.
The Sockeyes later became a Junior B team.
Read about the Sockeyes’ magical 1987 national championship, the only one in team history, here.
