Sports
Sockeyes forced to sit and wait
Richmond Sockeyes will have almost a month to
reflect before resuming their hockey season.
They can use the time between now and the
start of the Cyclone Taylor Cup tournament (the provincial Junior B
championship which they’ll host April 13 to 15), to rest up, but also to
strategize.
Despite a solid regular season in which they
compiled the second-best record (33-8-1-2) in the Pacific Junior Hockey League,
the Sockeyes ran into another juggernaut in the Delta Ice Hawks in the Tom Shaw
Conference playoffs. The Ice Hawks, tops in the regular season with a
jaw-dropping 37-4-0-3 record during the regular season, were worthy winners of
the semifinal series in which they defeated Richmond four games to one.
A pair of Richmondites put the Ice Hawks over
the top in the series-clinching 2-1 win in Game 5 Sunday at the Ladner Leisure
Centre. Captain Gary Dhaliwal opened the scoring for Delta 1:29 into the first
period, while Daniel Rubin netted the winning goal with just over four minutes
to play in the opening frame. Jordan Funk cut the margin to 2-1, scoring the
Sockeyes’ lone goal midway through the second period.
Delta, playoff champions a year ago, will
face the Ridge Meadows Flames in the 2018 championship series. First-place
finishers in the Harold Brittain Conference during the regular season, the
Flames ousted the Abbotsford Pilots in five games in their semifinal playoff
series.