Head coach Ty Davidson continues to be frustrated by his team’s lack of consistency, and perhaps that struggle has never been more evident than it is right now.
A day after a dominant 9-0 victory against the Grand Forks Border Bruins, the Rockets laid an egg against the Creston Valley Thunder Cats Saturday night in a 7-1 defeat.
“To a man we weren’t ready to go. For whatever reason we didn’t stick to the game plan,” Davidson said.
Golden was never really in the game against Creston, with the club surrendering a set of first period goals to put themselves behind after the opening frame. Carson Cartwright scored his second of the game in the second and Dylan Hogue added another in the middle of the period and the Rockets found themselves down 5-0 after two.
The Thunder Cats didn’t stop there, as Cartwright completed the hat trick and Mason Mazur got the Cats’ seventh of the game before Golden finally got on the board. Matthew Krusky broke the shutout with just over two minutes to play to salvage a bit of pride for the Rockets in what was a very disappointing team effort.
Magnus Viberg had the start in goal, but Davidson wouldn’t place any blame on his goaltender for the blowout loss.
“The chances that we gave up were just way too good. Magnus actually played a pretty good game in net, he made a lot of good saves. All of the goals against we really hung him out to dry,” he said.
With just 9 games remaining, the Rockets find themselves in a tight battle for playoff seeding with their division rivals. After this weekend’s games the Kimberley Dynamiters sit four points clear of Golden, while the Thunder Cats are two points ahead of the Rockets with a game in hand.
The road ahead won’t get any easier for Golden as they’ll have a home and home with the first place Fernie Ghostriders on Jan. 23 and 24. Fernie will host the first leg of the series on Friday before the Rockets play host the follow night at the Golden & District Arena.
