Royals Off To One Of Best Starts In 55 Years
Richmond comes back to beat Hawks before things went full Shoresy at final buzzer
The Richmond Royals are off to one of their best starts in their 55-year history.
The local Junior B hockey team has six wins through their first seven games and sit in first place in the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Richardson Division.
The Royals also have three of the EOJHL’s top four scorers, and each of the three is averaging at least one goal per game. Tyler Cutts leads the league with 20 points. Three of his nine goals have come shorthanded. Samuel Klawitter of the Arnprior Packers is second with 16 points, followed by Richmond’s Tyler Cutts with 15 points and Dylan Rorwick with 14. Rorwick was named the EOJHL Player of the week for the first week of the season.
On Monday, the Royals celebrated thanksgiving with a 5-1 win over the Perth Blue Wings at the Richmond Memorial Community Centre.
The Royals jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Jackson Dallaire scored two goals in less than three minutes, the first from Parker Stretch and Danny Marsden, and the second was an unassisted shorthanded goal off a Perth turnover. Tyler Hames scored his ninth of the year from Rorwick and Drew Russett with40 seconds left in the period.
Ethan Wooller of the Blue Wings put one past Royals goalie Cooper Lennon early in the second for his team’s only goal of the game. Rorwick netted his sixth of the year later in the period from Cutts and Russett, While Marsden addeda goal in the third from Hames and Connor Platt to make the final 5-1.
Lennon stopped 45 of the 46 shots he faced for the win.
The day before, the Royals rallied in the third period to earn a come-from-behind 7-4 win over the visiting Winchester Hawks.
William Labrosse scored twice to give the Hawks a 2-0 first period lead.
In the second, Cutts scored a pair of goals for the Royals and Hames added one, while Gabe Kingsbury tallied for the Hawks to knot the score at 3-3.
The Hawks took a 4-3 lead on Liam Monahan’s goal just 13 seconds into the third period, but then things got chippy and Royals took control.
Sam Fisher of the Hawks took a four minute high sticking penalty, and then Shane Moodie took a four-minute spearing penalty.
With the Royals on a two-man advantage, Tyler Cutts scored from Leo Kluchert and Tyler Hames to tie the score at 4-4.
The Hawks penalty killing unit kept their team in the game, and then they went on the power play when Danny Marsden of the Royals was sent off for hooking.
With the Hawks pressing the Royals and goalie Sam Nolan called on to make numerous saves, defenceman Simon Yang sprung Rorwick free on a breakaway. Rorwick deked and went top shelf blocker side on a highlight film goal to put the Royals ahead 5-4.
Just over a minute later, Cutts scored from Reid Johnston and Marsden to make the score 6-4, and then rorwick added another goal from Tyler Hames to make the score 7-4.
Things got heated after that. Labrosse was called for slashing while parked in front of Nolan in the Richmond crease, which led to Winchester’s Moodie and Richmond’s Remo Marcantonio tangling and getting reduced sentences of two minutes for roughing after the whistle.
As the buzzer went to end the game, things went full Shoresy. Yang stood over a Hawks player who had been knocked down in front of the Royals net and chirped him, earning a 10-minute misconduct. Anderson Hapke of the Hawks was given a match penalty for spitting. He and Reid Johnston then scrapped, with Johnston coming out the victor to the cheers of the home crowd. Both Johnston and Hapke drew fighting majors, plus 10 minute and game misconducts.
The Royals sit one point ahead of the Carleton Place Canadians in the standings. The two teams square off for a home-and-home series this weekend with games Saturday night in Carleton Place at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 1:20 p.m. in Richmond.
