With one game remaining in the regular season, the Golden Rockets have solidified a spot in this year’s playoffs. The team played a pair of games over the weekend, as a means of sharpening their game, versus the Columbia Valley Rockies and the Fernie Ghostriders.
On Friday, February 5th the Rockets made their way to Invermere to climb the mountain known as the Rockies; the Rockets seemed to have little trouble with the hike. The Spacemen swarmed the Rockies like a pack of rabid dogs, hammering the team by a score of 9-0.
“Nothing against the Rockies, but we truly overmatched them on Friday. The boys played great and Crossland Wass got us our first shutout of the season,” Golden Rockets Head Coach, Ty Davidson said.
Besides Wass’ stellar performance, Tyler Fairall rediscovered his scoring touch and potted four goals on his way to a five-point night. Lucas Nickles also kicked in a couple goals while Justin Fulton and Darren Andre both tallied three points.
The Rockets continued south on Saturday to do battle with the frightening Fernie Ghostriders; Fernie seemed to be waiting for Golden like a thug in a dark alley. The Ghostriders punished the Rockets by a score of 14-3; giving up two touchdowns will be something the club will have to chase from their minds before playoff time.
“We couldn’t do anything right against Fernie. We seemed to be getting a lot of bad bounces, but that is certainly no excuse. We have to put that one behind us as fast as possible and sharpen up before the playoffs,” Davidson explained.
In the lashing, nothing went well for the Spacemen including going 1-7 on the power play and giving up four shorthanded goals. A five goal second period and a seven goal third sealed the victory for the dynamite team from Fernie. Thomas Abenante, of the Ghostriders, had a night to write home about due to scoring eight points against Golden.
The Rockets will not have time to worry about the thumping from Fernie as the playoffs commence on February 14th in Creston Valley where Golden will start a best of seven versus the Thundercats. The first two games will be in Creston before the series shifts to Golden for a pair of games on February 17th and 18th (games start at 7:30pm). The two teams match up nicely, and a great series is to be expected.
“The Thundercats are a very good team, they’ve won 25 games already this year. They are more defensively orientated than us, so we’ll have to keep the pressure on them in order to succeed. They are bigger and older than us, but we are much faster. I think if we can keep the tempo up, we have a good chance of taking the series,” Davidson concluded.
So, get out to the Golden Arena and cheer on the Rockets as they make their push in the playoffs. After the 17th and 18th the series will be back in Golden on February 21st, if necessary. But before any of these games can take place, the regular season must come to an end. The Rockets’ final regular season game goes at 7:30pm at the Golden Arena on February 11th versus the Grand Forks Border Bruins.
