The Golden Rockets have scored themselves a spot in the Kootenay Ice Junior Hockey League playoffs for the first time in four years.
There are still nine regular season games remaining, but the Rockets are in for the Eddie Mountain Division. They will continue to battle for position standings, and four of the remaining regular season games take place on home ice on February 1, 2, 8 and 9.
The Golden Rockets may have been off their game on Tuesday, January 15, losing 5-1 to the Kimberley Dynamiters, but they were able to bring it back over a busy week of games to get their way into the playoffs. In the first period against the Dynamiters, the visiting team scored the only goal, and raked in a second one during the second period before the Rockets could get anything. The only goal of the night scored by the Rockets was by Riley Egan assisted by Dominic Turner and Bryce Trimmer. The Dynamiters piled in a few more goals before the end of the game, winning with a 5-1 score.
The Rockets reeled it back in on Saturday night against the Columbia Valley Rockies, away from home. Alex Johnson scored the first game of the night against the Rockies, turning the heat up right from the start, with an assist from Chad MciLwain and Briar Whyte. Going into the second period, MciLwain scored the second goal, and the Rockies were able to tie it up before the end of the period. With many great saves by Jacob Bennet throughout the night, the Rockets scored again with less than three minutes left on the clock. Terrel Vekved scored the winning goal of the night against the Rockies from MciLwain, ending the game in a 3-2 win.
In the third game last week, the Rockets took on the Creston Valley Thundercats once again, on home ice. In the first period, Turner scored the first goal from Egan, and Brett Benson got the second one, from Turner and Egan, ending the first in a 2-0 score. In a bit of back and forth play, the Thundercats scored a goal in the second period, but the Rockets followed it up with a goal by Jacob Dewar from Vekved and Louis Ferraro. They didn’t stop there, and Jayden Hendricks scored the fourth goal from Brendan Sime-Vivian and Kale Wareham, and TJ Johnson scored the fifth from Sime-Vivian and Colton Hutchinson, killing it with a 5-1 score by the send of the second period.
The Thundercats were able to put up a good fight, and got one more goal in during the third period. Dewar scored the final goal of the night on home ice, securing their position in the playoffs and ending the game in a 6-2 win for the Golden Rockets.
After the games, head coach Jeremy Blumes Tweeted “We help coach these little Rockets and were absolutely thrilled to share our loud and proud #GoldenBC crowd.”
