Ridge Meadows Flames open new season with 4–3 win over Port Coquitlam Trailblazers

The Ridge Meadows Flames opened the junior hockey season with a 4–3 win over the Port Coquitlam Trailblazers on Friday, Sept. 11, at Cam Neely Arena. Jonah Power Smith scored the Flames’ first two goals of the season to give the team an early lead. Rookie Jonah Ussher scored early in the second period, while sophomore Manny Sandhu recorded the winner and an assist.

Rookie goaltender Jonah Chambers, a hometown player, earned his first win by stopping 21 of 24 shots. Maple Ridge’s Cooper Crowe scored all three Trailblazers goals for a hat trick, and he and fellow Ridge player Colton Collard each had two assists. The pair were co-leaders in scoring for the Mission City Outlaws last season, with 62 points apiece.

The Flames enter a new league and a new coaching era as three-time reigning Pacific Junior Hockey League champions. Assistant coach Mike Legg has been promoted to head coach, with Garett MacDonald named associate head coach, replacing Brent Hughes, who led the club to three straight PJHL titles.

The roster includes many rookies but returns key veterans. Sandhu had 65 points in 44 games as a rookie last season. Power Smith returns after posting 27 goals and 23 assists, alongside Maple Ridge’s Joshua Bettesworth, who had 22 goals and 30 assists, and two-way defenceman Tyler Blatz.

The re-aligned BC Hockey Conference will have 22 clubs playing a 50-game regular-season schedule across the Interior, Kootenay, Mainland and Valley divisions. The Flames are in the six-team Mainland Division with the Burnaby Steelers, Coastal Tsunami, Delta Ice Hawks, Richmond Sockeyes and Port Coquitlam Trailblazers. The top four teams in each division will reach a 16-team playoff, featuring four best-of-seven rounds and concluding with the Mowat Cup in April.

The Flames next play the Richmond Sockeyes at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 at Cam Neely Arena. The Sockeyes have opened the season with two losses, both to the Delta Ice Hawks.