By the skin of their teeth, the Columbia Valley Rockies lost in overtime to the Golden Rockets October 7 at Golden Arena by a score of 6-5.
Rockies forward Alex Roskell was named second star of the game following a two-goal, three-point night which saw the Rockies out shoot their opponents 40-31, notably 19-4 in the third period.
However, with the score 5-4 for the Rockies late in the third period, Rockets winger Bryden Marsh scored the equalizer with only five seconds remaining, and then assisted on the game-winning goal by Darren Andre in overtime.
With the overtime loss, the Rockies captured their first point of the season, but still fell to 0-8-0-1 for the year.
The Rockies then completed their home and away set with the Golden Rockets Saturday October 8 in Invermere at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena, losing by a score of 6-2.
While the Rockies were consistently the more physical team, their big hits got them into penalty trouble more often than not.
The Rockets capitalized with three unanswered power play goals before Rockies defenceman Spencer Johnston got the crowd back into it with a slapper from just inside the blue line that found its way past Rockets goalie Cole Henson.
The Rockets restored the three-goal cushion before the end of the period, but an exciting fight midway through the third seemed to energize the Rockies as they managed to close the gap to two with a power play goal by Tyler Reay with eight minutes remaining.
However, the comeback was not to be, as the Rockets quickly answered less than a minute later on a rebound at the side of the net, and then put the game away for good, when on a two-on-one Rockets forward Darren Andre kept the puck and put it past Rockies goalie Bruce Corrigal to put the game out of reach.
The Rockies finished the week 0-2-0-1 following their games against Golden and a 7-1 loss against the Fernie Ghostriders October 4 at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena.
That game saw Rockies goalie Bruce Corrigal make 54 saves as the Rockies were out shot 61-19 by the division leading Ghostriders.
The Rockies record now stands at 0-9-0-1 for the season with a winnable game against fellow Eddie Mountain Division cellar-dwellers Creston Valley Thunder Cats on the horizon, when they visit the Thunder Cats Thursday, October 13.
Following that, the team will host from two Okanagan-Shuswap challengers, when the Revelstoke Grizzlies and Kamloops Storm come calling Friday and Saturday.
