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Rockies tame Cats and banish Ghostriders
By Stephanie Stevens
It’s about more than just on-ice practice: you need trust as well.
The Columbia Valley Rockies leveled up their Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) play last weekend with back-to-back wins, first in an away game against the Creston Valley Thunder Cats Nov. 8 and then home in the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena hosting the Fernie Ghostriders Nov. 9.
“I thought the weekend was excellent, not just from the perspective of winning both games. I was really happy to see the way the guys started trusting each other and having each other’s backs,” said head coach Tayler Sincennes. “We executed the little details really well in both games. In the Creston game we dominated with simple play and high-paced hockey.”
The 5-1 win started with captain Kobe Mason beating the ‘Cats goalie in the first period (assists by Dylan Duzan and Teo Fath).
The second period cinched the win with goals from Carter Velker (Owen Ditzel and Carter Hensch), Peter Godley (Ethan Cerone and Bryan Kim), Kim (Cerone and Godley) and Duzan (Johnny Lozeman and Paddy Donahue).
Between the pipes Ryan Bain stopped 29 of 30 shots on goal.
Back home in the Eddie the next night the Rockies continued to use that training and trust.
“Saturday we had to stick with it a little bit more as we were in a tight checking playoff style game and again, I thought the guys did an excellent job trusting the process,” said Sincennes. “We never wavered from our game plan.”
Associate coach Tucker Braund said he was really pleased with how the entire weekend went.
“We played our whole line up, all twenty-five guys saw action over two games and we won two big divisional games,” Braund said. “Fernie definitely had that playoff game feeling, our team did a good job sticking together and sticking with the plan and we finally got a bounce our way with a late power play and we executed on it.
“We battled, we had a late penalty against us in the third period and our penalty kill had to go to work against Fernie’s good power play and they did an excellent job which gave us the chance to win later in the game.”
Masters (Carter Tuplin and Fath) opened up the scoring for the hometown boys in the first period with Velker (Noah Asmundson and Ditzel) taking the lead at the end of the first. The ‘Riders tied it up in the second and the third period saw the teams battle it out right to the last minute when Ashton Sledz (Kim and Asmundson) potted the winning goal.
Jaiden Jakibowski was in goal and stopped 29 of 31 shots on goal.
Braund said both goalies proved their mettle in their respective games.
“Bain had a great game Friday. Even though they got the first goal he stuck in there and battled it out so we could win,” he said. “Jako gave us the chance to win Saturday… he was really good the whole game.”
“The crowd on Saturday was really great… lots of energy and lots of people which was awesome to see,” added Sincennes.
The Rockies are in tough the next two games, first away playing Eddie Mountain Division leading Kimberley Dynamiters Friday the 15th and the next home game is Saturday, Nov. 16 against the Neil Murdoch Division leading Beaver Valley Nite Hawks.
Lead image: Rockies forward Carter Velker back checks against the Fernie Ghostriders Nov. 9 in Invermere. Stephanie Stevens photos
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