It certainly wasn't the way the Wolfpack wanted to start off their season but there's nowhere to go but up for the team after a disastrous home debut on Saturday (Sept. 11).
The Wolfpack were seemingly never in the game, falling behind early and allowing six unanswered goals to fall to the Richmond Sockeyes 6-0 in front of a healthy crowd at Brennan Park Arena.
Head coach Matt Samson wasn't pleased with his team's effort.
"It's disappointing," he said. "But Richmond is a good team and we had a lot of guys who were playing their first Junior B game."
Special teams were a huge deciding factor as Richmond scored three power play goals and also killed every penalty they received.
"Their power play was good," Samson admitted. "Their systems were good and ours weren't today and that made a big difference in the game."
Prior to the drop of the puck, there was a moment of silence for recently deceased local Squamish hockey player Dan Savage. It was also revealed that a logo on the ice with his name and number will be displayed as a tribute for the remainder of the hockey season.
Richmond controlled the play early on, utilizing a quick breakout and speed to stymie the Wolfpack. A lackluster power play for the Wolfpack seemed to swing the momentum even further to Richmond and Sebastian Pare fired a shot from the hash marks that beat Wolfpack starting goalie Jordan Liem.
A few minutes later, the Sockeyes capitalized with the man advantage after the Wolfpack failed to clear the puck and Jake Roder put Richmond up 2-0 after one period of play. Richmond outshot Squamish 11-7 in the first period.
The second period was where things began to fall apart for the Wolfpack.
"Our effort in the second period wasn't good enough," Samson said.
Pare scored again, this time on the power play, to put Richmond up 3-0 and then the floodgates opened. Clayton Wright scored on a breakaway and then Sockeyes captain Patrick Hunter deflected a shot from the point to quickly make it 5-0.
Liem was pulled after the fifth goal but Samson didn't blame him for the lopsided score.
"Jordan played well for us," Samson said. "We had too many odd man rushes against him. We thought our goaltending was fine today."
Shanson Lunny replaced Liem and he played solid but the game was out of reach when he entered it. The Wolfpack were outshot in the second period 15-4.
The third period saw the Babych boys, Ty and Jaret, both engage in fisticuffs but the Wolfpack will now be without Jaret for their next game as he dropped the gloves in the ten minutes of the game. Fighting in the final ten minutes is an automatic suspension for the next game in the Pacific International Junior Hockey League.
"It's going to hurt us to lose Jaret for next game," said Samson. "You never want to lose one of your top players."
Richmond added a goal from Jeremy Hamaguchi to make it 6-0 and rub a little salt in the Wolfpack's wounds. Play became quite chippy in the third but Squamish picked up their game somewhat, firing 11 shots at Sockeyes goalie Devin Nijjer, who recorded a shutout.
The Wolfpack will travel to Delta to take on the Ice Hawks next and Samson will be looking for players to step up.
"Our defence has got to be a lot better," he said. "We need to improve our defensive zone coverage and also get more shots on the net."
He also noted that a number of different players will draw into the lineup on Tuesday (Sept. 14) and a good performance could earn a roster spot.
The next home game for the Wolfpack will be Saturday, Sept. 18 when they host the Ridge Meadows Flames.
Ben's Beast of the Game: Forward Marcus Chabot for hitting everything that moved and not backing down.
