By Stephanie Stevens

The Columbia Valley Rockies’ footing slipped a little after losing two games last week, but they gained a little back winning a third.

The Junior A Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) team was in Fernie Tuesday, Dec. 10 taking on the Ghostriders in their barn but the game ended 4-2 in the ‘Riders favour.

The Rockies didn’t get on the scoreboard until the third period when Johnny Lozeman (assist from Bryan Kim) and then Carter Velker (Noah Asmundson) got a couple past the Fernie goalie.

Jaiden Jakubowksi stopped 39 of 42 shots on goal (Fernie’s final goal was an empty netter).

“Tuesday was a very lacklustre effort from everybody,” said head coach Tayler Sincennes. “We showed up and played on our heels for 40 minutes. We made a push in the last 20 which was good to see but it was too little too late.”

Fernie was in Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena for a rematch Friday, Dec. 13 but despite the Rockies playing hard, the final score was once again in Fernie’s favour.

Heading into the second period one down, Ashton Sledz (Kobe Mason and Ethan Cerone) opened up scoring for the Rockies, followed by Sam Cristo (Sledz and Paddy Donahue) and Asmundson (Velker and Peter Godley) got one more in the third but the game ended 5-3.

Jakubowski was in net again and stopped 25 of 29 shots.

Saturday the boys were away in Creston facing off with the Thunder Cats and got the result they were after.

The 3-1 win saw goals from Carter Tuplin (Cristo and Jack Thorne) and Cerone (unassisted) in the second period and Asmundson (unassisted) added one more to the tally in the third.

Netminder Ryan Bain kept 28 of 29 shots out of the net.

“Friday and Saturday were both really good efforts,” said Sincennes. “Friday we didn’t get the result we wanted but Saturday we did. It was good to see that losing Friday didn’t deter our group from playing the right way on Saturday.”

There are two more home games for 2024, both this weekend with Creston in the Eddie Friday, Dec, 20 and the Golden Rockets in town on Saturday.

The New Year’s Even game will be away in Creston.

Lead image: Jaiden Jakubowksi covers the puck while a discussion covering a variety of topics continues above him.Dec. 10 at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena.  Stephanie Stevens photos

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