Royals Lose To Golden Knights In Return To Ice
By Manotick Messenger/Richmond Hub Staff
The Richmond Royals made their long-awaited return to the ice at the Richmond Memorial Community Centre Sunday.
Unfortunately, the Royals’ day ended with not one loss, but two losses, as the first place juggernaut Ottawa West Golden Knights took the end of a game that was suspended from earlier in the season 7-6 before beating the Royals 5-2 in the scheduled game.
The two losses left the Royals with a 7-15-1-1 record and seventh place in the eight-team Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League Martin Division. The Knights sit in first place with a 22-4-0-1 record for 45 points, three points ahead of the second place Embrun Panthers.
The suspended game resumed with 8:17 left to play in the third period. Jack Haymes of the Golden Knights broke the tie with a goal with 4:11 remaining with what turned out to be the winning goal.
In the regularly scheduled game, the Royals held a 2-0 lead in the second period, but the Golden Knights stormed back with three goals in the second and two in the third to take a 5-2 win.
Francesco Sicoli scored a power play goal in the first from Kylan Taveras, and then Curran Gilmour added a power play marker from Ryan Sullivan and Sicoli in the second.
The Golden Knights stormed back as Marco Haw scored at 7:44 of the second, and then Haw and Justin Graham netted back-to-back goals late in the period.
In the third, things got chippy as there appeared to be some pent up aggression during the pause to the season.
The Royals took three straight penalties, including a game-misconduct for slew-footing. Liam Aston and Keon Troccoli-Roik scored for the Golden Knights. The boys sorted things out with just under four minutes left. When the dust settled, both teams took a pair of roughing penalties, and the Royals took a 10-minute misconduct for abuse of an official. There was another pair of minor penalties with less than two minutes to go before the game ended in a Golden Knights win.
Golden Knights goalie Jordan Provost made 45 saves to earn the game’s first star, while Richmond goalie Ethan Dinsdale made 43 saves to earn the game’s second star. Marco Haw of the Golden Knights was third star.
The Royals travel to Alexandria to face the Glens Wednesday night before returning home Sun., Feb. 13 to face the Ottawa Jr. Canadians.
