By Stephanie Stevens

There is more to creating a strong team than just recruiting talent.

The talent has to get to know one another.

The Columbia Valley Rockies played three games in three days last weekend, all in the opponents’ barns.

But while the Rockies lost two of those three games, head coach Tayler Sincennes said a lot of good came out of the weekend trip.

“We played well in all three games and we had lots to build on coming out of the weekend,” he said. “Our group is slowly starting to come together and spending the amount of time we did on the bus over the weekend, the chemistry is starting to build.”

Friday, Oct. 18 saw the boys in Kootenay International Junior Hockey League-leading Princeton Posse’s backyard with goalie Jaiden Jakobowski between the pipes.

Teo Fath started things off with an unassisted goal in the first period, followed by Ethan Cerone (assists by Owen Ditzel and Johnny Lozeman). Noah Admundson (Carter Hensch) added another in the second but the Posse ultimately took the game 4-3.

Jakubowski stopped 32 of 36 shots on goal.

The following night in Osoyoos against the Coyotes saw the weekend’s winning game, with Ryan Bain in goal stopping 26 of 28 shots in the 9-2 victory.

First period scoring was thanks to Cerone (Jack Hefferan) and the second period saw the target hit by Dylan Duzan (Bryan Kim and Shawn Minnabarriet), Carter Velker (Asmundson), Duzan (Cerone and Ashton Sledz) and Velker (Hensch and Hefferan).

Adding to the tally in the third was Peter Godley (Lukas Masters and Ditzel), Sledz (Cerone and Duzan), Jaxson Sperling (Duzan and Kim) and Velker (Asmundson and Hensch).

The Sunday afternoon game against the Grand Forks Border Bruins ended 6-3 for the Bruins, with the three Rockies goals courtesy of Admundson unassisted in the first, and Ditzel (Kim and Paddy Donahue) and Velker (Kim and Godley) in the second.

Bain was again in the net and stopped 28 of 34 shots.

“Obviously still lots of things to improve on,” said Sincennes. “Even though it wasn’t overly successful on the wins side of it, I’m happy with what I saw for the most part.”

The boys are back in the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena this weekend, with the Spoken Braves in town tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 25) and the Quesnel River Rush Saturday.

Tuesday, Oct. 29 will see the surging Kimberley Dynamiters back in the Eddie. Puck drop is 7 p.m. for each game.

It will be the family weekend for the lads as well, with parents and billet parents invited to pack the stands Friday and Saturday. Sincennes said the family weekend, planned each season, is important more a variety of reasons.

“It gives us an opportunity to meet and interact with their families, which we don’t get to do very much throughout the season. All of the early morning practices and long road trips that they put into their sons’ hockey careers… it’s nice for us bring them all together out here and recognize that hard work they put in,” said Sincennes.

“The parents don’t get to watch in person every night, so I’m sure they are happy to come out and watch their sons play live and spend time with them after the game.”

Assistant coach Tanner Wit added it is “nice for the guys to be able to see their families after the first small portion of the season.

“For some of the players it’s their first time away from their home and it can be a difficult transition, so it’s good for them to have a weekend to look forward to where they can have their support systems come to them and break up the grind of the season.”

Lead image: Rockies’ coaches Tucker Braund, Tanner Wit and Tayler Sincennes.

Stephanie Stevens file photo

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