There were no surprises in Rossland as the first-place Okanagan Rockets swept the last-place Kootenay Ice in weekend set of B.C. Major Midget League action.
On Saturday, Liam Finlay made an auspicious return to the Rockets lineup with a hat-trick to lead Okanagan with an 8-0 win.
Finlay has missed the last month of play with an upper body injury.
The team’s leading scorer, Tyson Jost, had two goals and two assists, while Tanner Wishnowski, Kobe Oishi and Josh Johnston had singles and Tanner Campbell had three assists.
Reid Kilburn made 25 saves for his third shutout of the season, all against the Ice. It was the eighth straight time the Rockets had shutout Kootenay.
On Sunday, the Ice finally broke through with a second-period goal, but the Rockets still rolled to an 8-1 win.
Jost scored his 18th and 19th goals of the season, Branden Wagner scored twice and added an assist, while Oishi, Jake Kryski, Cory Santoro and Carter Hikichi also tallied for the Rockets.
Jost now leads the BCMML in scoring with 19 goals and 38 points.
Kilburn was in net for both games and is now 12-2-1 this season.
Okanagan (18-3-1) opened up a four-point lead on the idle Northwest Giants (16-3-1) but the Vancouver team does have two games in hand.
This weekend, the Rockets will host the third-place Valley West Hawks this weekend.
The teams face off Saturday at 3 p.m. and again Sunday at 10 a.m. at CNC.
