Game 1 of the Tom Shaw Conference final did not go the way the Ice Hawks wanted, as they fell 7-5 on the road to the Richmond Sockeyes Monday night.
While Delta outshot Richmond all game, it was a back-and-forth battle throughout, with Richmond taking the final edge.
Payton Hu opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, picking up a rebound out front and firing a shot top right corner for a hot start for Delta. But Rajun Parmar fired back minutes later to tie it up and start the seesaw battle.
The Hawks went back up after Declan Warburton made a solo effort, picking up the puck in the neutral zone and taking it all the way down the right wing and finding a hole through Thomas Popa for a 2-1 lead.
Justin McKnight tied the game at two before the end of the period, and Nicholas Noren scored the next goal for Richmond over halfway through the second to give Richmond their first lead of the game.
Mateo Sjoberg brought Delta back even with an absolute snipe through a tiny gap between Popa and the crossbar, but McKnight again scored before the end of the period for a 4-3 Richmond lead.
In the third, Conner Merriman was able to tie it up with a sharp angle shot from the right side that snuck through and over the goal line, but after that, Delta’s luck started to run out.
Matthew Stewart and Noren had back-to-back goals to give the home team a two-goal lead. Yuji Akimoto was able to score off a draw towards the end of the period, but Justin Grant’s empty-netter held off the Hawks’ comeback effort for a 7-5 Sockeyes win to open the series.
