The Columbia Valley Rockies won 8-5 against the Golden Rockets in the Golden Arena on Friday, December 18th.
In spite of two penalties in the first period, there was no scoring done then, but the second made up for that with lots of action on the ice.
Rockets player Andrew Dunn scored an unassisted goal to mark the start of the game, which was promptly followed up with his teammates — Darion Nordick and Riley Barnes — moving down the ice for the Junior B team’s second goal.
But Rockies player Nolan Menard scored a goal, thanks to an assist from Kellen Marchand, which opened the gates for him. Mr. Menard used that success to score a natural hattrick, earning the team’s first three goals of the evening.
Then, Rockies player Colby Sherlock scored again, bringing the Rockies into a 4-2 lead against the Rockets.
Ryan St. Jean brought that up by to 5-2 before the second period came to an end.
During the third, Rockets players Travis Kelly, who was assisted by Kyran Karol and Tanner Wit, scored a goal.
Kule Rosolowski quickly followed suit with an assist from Mr. Kelley, bringing the score up to 5-4 for the Rockies.
Rockies player Kellen Marchand scored the team’s next goal during a power play.
The Rockets, then, scored their final goal before the Rockies stepped up to the task of winning the game.
The night concluded with two more goals from the Rockies, the first scored by Doan Smith and the second scored by Harrison Davies, for the win.
Close game between Rockies and Thunder Cats
The Columbia Valley Rockies narrowly beat the Creston Valley Thunder Cats 6-5 at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena on Saturday, December 19th.
“We had a pretty good strangle hold in this game,” said Wade Dubielewicz, while saying the Junior B team’s biggest challenge at this point of the season is staying focused during the games. “We let them get back into it and it ended up being a game at the end, which it shouldn’t have been but at the end of the day, we got the two points at that’s huge.”
During the first period, Rockies player Nick Hoobanoff scored a goal with assists from Micheal Cardinal and Nigel Swab, pushing the team into a 1-0 lead early on, but the Thunder Cats quickly tied up the game.
Moving into the second, the Rockies scored three goals thanks to Colton Sandboe (who scored two goals during that period, including one during a power play) and one by Cardinal.
During the third, the game got close.
“I think teams have a tendency, when they’re up by that amount, they want to change the way they’re playing and play the easier way which is not making simple, hard plays,” said Dubielewicz. “They want to make cute plays — sports-centered plays — and sometimes it comes back to bite you in the butt.”
Cardinal scored the first goal of the third, which was promptly followed by Doan Smith’s powerplay goal. However, the Thunder Cats managed to score four goals before the end of that period — making the win for the Rockies a very close game.
“It was probably the best 50 minutes we’ve played all year, so that’s a huge positive,” said Dubielewicz. “We were up a really good team. Now we’re going into the Christmas break on a three game winning streak and we want to carry that momentum through.”