After a pair of blowout losses to the Columbia Valley Rockies, Rockets head coach Jason Stephens said he wanted to see his club put together a consistent 60 minutes of hockey.
He just about got it on Sunday afternoon as Golden took a win from the Creston Valley Thunder Cats by a 5-3 score.
“I think for the most part we got pretty much what we wanted. We backed off a couple times there and had to regroup,” Stephens said.
“The boys played well tonight. They put the puck in the net and they played well defensively. When you work hard like that, that’s the result.”
If the Rockets had a lull in the game, it came in the third with the club already up 4-1.
With 14 minutes left in the period, the Thunder Cats cut the Rockets’ lead to two goals when Brett Witala beat Rockets goaltender Brody Nelson for a power play tally. Later, Lien Miller-Jeannotte made the Rockets – and the 170 fans in attendance – sweat by getting the Thunder Cats’ third goal and narrowing the Rockets’ lead to one.
That was as close as they’d come, however, as Mathew Thiessen put the finishing touches on the Rockets’ first home-ice win with his third goal of the game, this one into an empty net.
Thiessen had previously opened the scoring in the first with a pair of first period markers. The hat trick comes a little over a week after his linemate Travis Kelley pulled off the same feat against the Sicamous Eagles.
Thiessen says his line, which also includes captain Tanner Wit, has found a lot of chemistry together in recent weeks.
“I think the big thing is that everybody can score goals on that line and everybody can pass the puck on that line. On any given day it could be Wit, Travis, myself. Any one of us three can score the goals…it just depends who has the hot stick and who has the touch,” Thiessen said.
The Rockets also got goals from Andrew Dunn and Riley Barnes in the win.
Golden will host the Nelson Leafs on Friday before heading south to take on the Beaver Valley Nitehawks to close out the month.
