The Richmond Sockeyes and Delta Ice Hawks will continue their battle for the Tunnel Cup on Tuesday in Ladner — each looking to snap two-game losing streaks.
A douse of hot goaltending resulted in the Sockeyes coming away with just one of four points in back-to-back games.
They fell 3-2 in overtime to the Langley Trappers on Thursday night at Minoru Arenas with the difference being the brilliance of Richmond native Ajeet Gundarah.
The 16-year-old showed why he is the leading candidate for PJHL rookie-of-the-year with a 55-save performance. The Sockeyes enjoyed a whopping 57-22 advantage in the shot department.
Gundarah, who helped Seafair win the Western Canada Bantam AAA Championship in 2018, is now 10-4-1 on the season with a 2.47 goals against average and .933 save percentage.
One night later in Ridge Meadows, Richmond outshot the Flames 36-25 but dropped another 3-2 decision.
The Sockeyes enter Tuesday’s tilt 16-8-1-3 — four points back of second place Grandview. They also host Mission on Thursday at 7 p.m. and their annual Teddy Bear Toss Game is on Sunday (6 p.m.) against Aldergrove.
Coming off their biggest win of the season — a 9-0 drubbing of the Aldergrove Kodiaks — the Ice Hawks (12-11-3-2) dropped back-to-back games on the weekend and are now just 4-6-0-0 in their last 10 contests.
They never could recover from a slow start in Abbotsford on Friday night, falling 4-3 to the 11-17-0-0 Pilots.
The hosts jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes and held on for the win.
One night later at Centennial Arena, Delta fell to the White Rock Whalers for third time in as many games, 4-2.
Marcus Pantazis, with his first as an Ice Hawks since being acquired from Richmond, made it 3-2 before White Rock added an empty netter.
The Tunnel Cup is awarded to the winner of the four-game regular season series. The teams earlier played to a 4-4 tie and Delta rallied for a wild 8-7 victory in overtime back on Oct. 24. The fourth and final meeting is Jan. 9 at Minoru. Game time Tuesday is 7:35 p.m.