Jessica Schwitek
reporter2@thegoldenstar.net
Another perfect weekend with two wins over the Columbia Valley Rockies brings the Golden Rockets’ record up to 4-2-0-1.
“I’m pretty happy, we played well,” said Head Coach Ty Davidson. “We stumbled at times on Friday, but we got what we needed.”
The Rockies were in Golden on Friday for a real nail-biter. Two quick goals in the first, from Rockets Bryden Marsh and Kyle Garcia, gave Golden an early lead.
Unfortunately that lead was lost by the end of the period after the Rockies scored a second on the power play.
The teams went goal for goal in the second, bringing the score to 4-4 heading into the third period. A goal, just over five minutes in, left the Rockets trailing for the first time in the game. But with five seconds left in regulation time, Marsh scored his second of the night, unassisted, to keep his team alive.
Rockets captain Darren Andre came through in overtime, scoring the game winner with 39 seconds left.
Marsh, who recently made it back into the lineup after injury, had a three point night, and was named the game’s first star.
“It’s gonna be huge having him back in the lineup,” said Davidson. “He’s a big body guy, with a lot of skill level. There’s not a lot of players in the league like that.”
Saturday night the team headed to Invermere to face the Rockies again, but the score wouldn’t be so close the second time around. Golden won the game 6-2, and outshot their opponents 45-24.
“We were really good start to finish. And our power play did much better, we scored some power play goals,” said Davidson. The Rockets scored three goals on six power plays, giving them their highest power play percentage (50 per cent), of the season.
Andre, the Rockets’ scoring leader, had a five point weekend, and according to Davidson, is starting to reach his scoring potential.
“Last year was the first time I had the opportunity to coach Darren. I kept telling him to shoot the puck more, and it looks like he’s finally starting to heed my advice. He’s got more of a shoot-first mentality this year. It’s nice to see.”
The next two games will be at home, first against the Fernie Ghostriders on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. And on Oct. 16, the team will play its first afternoon game of the season against the Kamloops Storm at 1 p.m.
“They are two very tough opponents. It will be a good test for us, we’ll get to see where we stand,” said Davidson.
