After a respectful regular season, the Golden Rockets have run out of rocket fuel in this year’s playoffs. The Rockets found themselves in round one against the older and much more experienced Creston Valley Thundercats. The Rockets had the edge of speed on the Thundercats, being slightly younger and faster on their blades, but Creston Valley seemed to cleverly outplay the Rockets, eventually defeating the Rockets in the series by a game total of 4-2.The Rockets continued their struggles at home, and lost all three games at the Launch Pad in Golden; two of the three losses were by one goal, including an overtime heartbreaker, but nonetheless ended up as defeats. It was also evident that the Rockets had trouble breaking through the neutral zone versus the more experienced bunch from Creston Valley, and continually struggled with getting their forecheck going.“They (Thundercats) played a smart series against us. They are an older team and seemed to deal with the pressure a little better than we did. They were able to show their maturity,” Head Coach of the Golden Rockets, Ty Davidson said, speaking of the series.It was a regular season that had the Rockets putting many pucks into the net, 221 to be exact, but it was also a year that proved the defensive side of the Rockets could use some work, after allowing 233 goals; to put that into perspective, the league-leading Fernie Ghostriders allowed merely 118 goals and scored 265. Although allowing more goals than you score is a true plight, the Rockets seemed, much like fine wine, to become better as the season progressed.“We had a much better second half of the season. We had a better road record than home all year…I’m not too sure why that was. But, we did seem to grow as the year carried on. Each player improved dramatically. That is very gratifying as a coach to see,” Davidson added.It was also a season that showed the entire KIJHL what kind of system is in place in Golden; a pair of players received high honours, and took home some hardware for their individual effort. Josh MacDonald was considered by the Eddie Mountain Division as being the “Most Sportsmanlike Player” and young star, Tyler Fairall took home “Rookie of the Year”.“Both boys were very deserving of the high honours they received. The entire dressing room felt really happy for the two guys,” Davidson said.The 2010-2011 season was a rookie-campaign, relatively speaking, for Head Coach Ty Davidson; Davidson has a bounty of hockey experience, just not as a Head Coach. Even though the Rockets record was not hugely impressive, with a regular season record of 22-26-2, Davidson still feels that the right steps are being taken for the organization.“We put together a decent year. My plan is to take what we learned this season and build from it next year. I feel that with a good recruiting off-season, and with what we have put together this year, that we will be very strong come September,” Davidson spoke with enthusiasm. With the big season that a few players had, and the fact that a few of the players will be too old to play in the league next season, the Rockets are still optimistic that the returning bunch will be a team to reckon with.“I suspect we’ll have a couple guys that will make the jump up to Junior A next year, and that is great…that is why we are here. We are also going to lose a couple of guys due to age, but that’s just what happens. There are many other teams (ie. Fernie) that will be losing many more players with regards to age. I expect us to be that much better next year and we will be able to go that much further,” Davidson concluded.
