It certainly wasn't the way the Wolfpack wanted to start the 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 said. "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 麻豆社国产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 lacklustre power play for the Wolfpack seemed to swing the advantage 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 麻豆社国产11-7 in the first period.
The second period was where the Wolfpack really began to fall apart.
"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 solidly 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.
Their dad, former NHLer Dave Babych, betrayed his feelings with a grin from the sidelines, but fighting in the final 10 minutes is an automatic suspension for the next game in the Pacific International Junior Hockey League, so the Wolfpack will now be without Jaret for their next game because he dropped the gloves in the final 10 minutes of the game.
"It's going to hurt us to lose Jaret for the 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 麻豆社国产picked up their game somewhat, firing 11 shots at Sockeyes goalie Devin Nijjer, who managed a shutout.
Ben's Beast of the Game: Forward Marcus Chabot for hitting everything that moved and not backing down.
On Tuesday (Sept. 14), the Wolfpack took on the Delta Ice Hawks in a closely fought game that was tied 2-2 after two periods.
With eight minutes remaining in the third, Delta's Liam Harding scored to give Delta the lead and they hung on to win 3-2.
The Wolfpack will look to get into the win column for the first time this season on Saturday (Sept. 18), when they host the Ridge Meadows Flames. Face-off is set for 7:15 p.m. at the Brennan Park Arena.
