Royals take first place Golden Knights to OT, now have points in eight of last nine games
Jeff Morris photo
By Jeff Morris
Jeff Morris photo
Manotick Messenger
The Richmond Royals continue to prove they can consistently play with anyone in the CCHL2 Junior Hockey League.
After their Wednesday game with Renfrew was postponed, the Royals had to face the Ottawa West Golden Knights at home Sunday. For the second straight game against Ottawa West, the Royals took them to overtime and grabbed a point in a 4-3 loss.
Two overtime losses to the Golden Knights may not seem like a big deal, but it is when you consider the first place Ottawa West team has only four regulation time losses this season.
After ending a four-game losing streak exactly one month ago, the Royals have gone on a tear, getting points in eight of their last nine games. During that stretch, the Royals have five wins, two overtime losses, one shootout loss, and one regulation loss.
On Sunday in Richmond, the Royals hosted the first place Golden Knights. The Royals once again took a point against the first place team, losing 4-3 in overtime.
The teams exchanged goals in the first, with Noah Haymes scoring for Ottawa West before Noah Dioszeghy scored for the Royals late in the first period from Owen Grundy.
The Golden Knights regained the lead early in the second as Jack Haymes scored a power play goal, but once again, the Royals fought back to tie the score late in the period as captain Patrick Yates notched his 13th of the year from Ryan Mann and Dawson Evans.
Noah Haymes scored his second goal of the game in the third, but the Royals once again tied the score as Mann netted his 14th of the year from Adam Goodfellow and Willem Brandt.
Richmond goalie Josh Lacelle faced a barrage of shots in the third period and foiled some good Ottawa West scoring chances to send the game to overtime.
Just 17 seconds into the extra period, Sam Brown scored the winner for the Knights. William McEvoy made 32 saves for the win while Lacelle made 38 saves for the Royals.
The Royals were scheduled to visit the Ottawa Canadians Tuesday night before visiting the Char-Lan Rebels Saturday night. Their next home game is Sunday afternoon at the barn in Richmond as they host the Brockville Tikis. Face off is at 1:30 p.m.