The Sockeyes kick off the first month of the 2025-26 season with a perfect record in the win column outsourcing all opposition by a commanding 33-12 margin. Given the changes with the roster from last season the first order of business for the coaching staff was to establish the overall confidence of the players, which they obviously have achieved. 

As the month of September wraps up the first month of league play, the team has managed a perfect record after playing the first six games of the season with six wins and scoring thirty-three goals. The largest and most notable stat for September shows the Sockeyes outshooting the opposition by an impressive 276 while allowing 145 shots on net which shows the overall explosive play to entertain their fans.

Returning to home ice, they faced the Chilliwack Jets who have been a powerhouse in the early part of the season considering the Jets have several returning players. The Jets jumped out in front taking an early 2-0 lead in the first ten minutes of play which set up the league timeout which was the turning point of the contest.

Sockeyes Kai Adano opened the scoring at 16:01 with assistant points going to Keelan Wyke and Mattias Uyeda that saw them trailing by one after twenty minutes. The intermission seemed to be a turning point of motivation given that they came out with more of a jump starting the second period with a pair of goals from Carter Voll at 4:36 and Jonathan Zhang getting his first of the season at 14:42 which gave the Sockeyes the lead 3-2 after two periods.

They started the third period, again with an aggressive fast-paced style of play grabbing a pair of goals from David Yoon while William Huo who scored at 12:32 on the power-play. The Jets found themselves trailing 5-2 and looking for a marker to get them back in the game but then the latter part of the game saw them pull their goalie for the extra attacker managing to get one past Massimo Urbani making it a 5-3 contest. 

For the Jets who were flying solo unlike one of Canada’s Snowbird’s they not only dropped the game they were outshot by a 57-27 total. The next test was a road trip to take on last year’s champs the Ridge Meadow Flames in a game that saw the Sockeyes dominate from the opening face-off pulling off an impressive 4-2 win outshooting the Flames by a 48-19 throughout the sixty minutes. To no surprise, the Sockeyes claimed the game’s first two stars with Luca Martyniuk named first star (2 goals) while Dylan Nazareth collected a goal and one assist in a game that was dominated by the visiting Sockeyes.

Returning home to the “Fish Tank” the Sockeyes were up against the visiting formerly Grandview Steelers, now named the Burnaby Steelers who were looking to put an end to the winning streak the Sockeyes were riding. Try as they might, the Steelers played an aggressive, physical game controlling the play from the start that saw the first period end with a tie of one goal each with the Sockeyes outshooting the Steelers 18-12.

The second period was again aggressive as the Steelers took advantage of loose pucks given up by the Sockeyes. 

Richmond turned up the pressure that saw Mattias Uyeda open the scoring at 13:32 set up by Captain Teo Lin and Brody Lindal making it a 2-1 lead followed by another goal from Lin putting the Sockeyes ahead 3-1 while, playing shorthanded. The Sockeyes maintained the lead until the third period finishing the game with a 3-2 lead again, outshooting the visitors by an impressive 49-29 shots.

Captain Teo Lin was named first star with two goals and one assist while Mattias Uyeda was named second star with one goal along with his solid play while Steelers Landon Mailhot was named third star with one goal.

The Sockeyes were taking a perfect five game winning streak on the road playing the second-year expansion Coastal Tsunami in Gibsons who to date continue to struggle in the early stage of the season. It must be something about a road trip and a ferry ride that motivated the team to play not just aggressively but with discipline and at times being “bated” into the odd penalty mainly for what I refer to as retaliation style of penalty.

In today’s game that is more of the way the game is being played given the manner in which the rule changes have been implemented by Hockey Canada which are for the betterment of the game. This contest was tied after one period just knowing that the Tsunami would like nothing better then to hand the Sockeyes their first loss of the season, which wasn’t what was about to happen.

The second period was all Richmond with goals from Mattias Uyeda, Nazareth, Lindal and Beaudin finishing the second period with a 6-2 lead outshooting the Tsunami 32-17. The third was more of a physically-aggressive game with Richmond taking five minor penalties while the Tsunami took six penalties that saw the Sockeyes score four goals while allowing the home-town team Tsunami one. The dominating win saw the Sockeyes head home stealing all three stars with Mattias Uyeda named first star, David Yoon second star and William Huo named third star. 

The Sockeyes finished the first month with a perfect six wins continuing to press the opposition while finishing with 33 goals and allowing 12 goals to the opposition, ending the month with 193 penalty minutes. October starts with the first game of the tunnel series against the Delta Ice Hawks who have relocated to the Sungod Arena in North Delta who are attracting a much larger fan base than in Ladner.

October could be more of a test for the Sockeyes with the opposition seeking to handing them their first loss, which the Sockeyes look to avoid. The Sockeyes’ home games are on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. at Richmond’s Minoru Arena. Come out and support these great young hockey players and it’s an inexpensive night of entertainment.