RICHMOND, B.C. – The fourth and final instalment of the Tunnel Series, the perennial in-season rivalry series between the Delta Ice Hawks and the Richmond Sockeyes, was one for the ages.
Thomas Popa, the recently-signed Ice Hawks goaltender, faced his former team in Richmond. On the other side: Mathias Hasselmann, a red-hot Richmond goaltender coming off a three-game winning streak that reached its zenith against the Chilliwack Jets on January 9th.
The Ice Hawks got out to a swift start, with Ryden Mathieson scoring his 30th goal of the season just over a minute into the contest. Nick Goyer, keeping the puck inside the blue line, shot the puck in on net, finding Mathieson crossing in front of Hasselmann in perfect position to corral the rebound. The Sockeyes were quick to answer, as Teo Lin tested his former teammate Popa to tie the game twenty seconds later. The next goal came in dazzling fashion, as Declan Warburton carried the puck through neutral and slipped up the wall, minimally encumbered, before arching in towards Hasselmann with a close-range dagger of a goal.
Past the midway point of the first period, Ice Hawks defenceman and former Sockeye Jonathan Soares caught the puck and seamlessly passed the puck up to the ice to Mateo Sjoberg. Sjoberg, pressured along the boards, dealt the puck across the ice to Rajun Parmar, another former Sockeye, who wound up a wicked shot to send another goal past Hasselmann. Down 3-1, Richmond comes back online a couple minutes later as Alex Kielmann cut his team’s deficit to one. With Soares in the box for delay of game, Richmond’s power play got to work with Michael McIntyre’s timely goal tying the game. Not letting the Sockeyes control the momentum, the Hawks came up clutch with Dawson Toledo, Colin Jang, and goal-scorer Beckett Cross executing a tight cycle of pressure and passes to surgically break through Hasselmann and regain the lead. This goal would prove to be the end of Hasselmann’s night, with Richmond turning to Max Fowle the rest of the way.
Richmond, just as fond of quick goals as Delta, applied rapid pressure right from the start of the second period to get their much-desired game-tying goal, with PJHL All-Star Mattias Uyeda scoring to deadlock the game’s score at 4-all. Late in the frame, with Sjoberg in the penalty box, Brogan Kennedy finds a sprawl of open ice between him and the Sockeyes’ net, wrangles the puck at the center ice logo, and races in on Fowle for a stunning short-handed goal.
The third period milled on with a propensity for intensity, with Delta controlling much of the early extended zone times, and Richmond seizing upon fleeting, clandestine chances to get in behind enemy lines. Netminders Popa and Fowle were both busy, both being called upon frequently to redirect the momentum of the game at a moment’s notice. Perhaps the most significant of these moments was one where Sockeyes forward Yashas Jain drove hard towards Popa and angled a shot through that would catch most other netminders askew, but Popa saw it through decisively to keep the Ice Hawks ahead by a goal. Late in the game, Delta used their time out to allow their players a chance to rest and regroup, which allowed Richmond a chance to pull Hasselmann for the extra attacker. Evan Fedele came closest of any to sealing the game with an empty-netter on three separate occasions, but even without the insurance goal, the Ice Hawks still skated away victorious by a final score of 5 to 4.
With the Tunnel Series now solidly won by Delta by a margin of three games to one, players on both squads shared a genial moment to close out the game. Popa, earning his first win against the Sockeyes, celebrated post-game on the ice with former teammates Mattias Uyeda and Teo Lin, and fellow former Sockeye Rajun Parmar joined the jubilant show of brotherhood.
The Delta Ice Hawks’ next game sees them set sail to the Sunshine Coast to clash with the Coastal Tsunami on Sunday, January 19th at 5:00 PM PST.
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THREE STARS
• Delta Ice Hawks forward Beckett Cross scored a stunner of a go-ahead goal to put his team up by one and earn third star on the road.
• Richmond Sockeyes forward Nicholas Noren was consistently present in the play, assisting on three of Richmond’s four goals to lock in second star honours.
• Delta Ice Hawks forward Brogan Kennedy was the ultimate hero tonight, slipping up the ice short-handed to score the eventual game-winning goal
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