The Golden Junior Rockets Hockey Club sends a hearty welcome to all Golden Fans To The 2023-24 Season!
A hearty welcome to all Kicking Horse Country sports fans, at the start of what promises to be another exciting season of Golden Rockets hockey.
KIJHL action launches in a big way for the local stars, with three home games this weekend at the Plywood Palace. The action will be a great, initial test for the local club, as they tangle with the visiting Princeton Posse (last year’s regular season champs) Friday night. Saturday evening, the speedy Spokane Braves (celebrating their 50th year and the team which puts the ‘“I” in the KIJHL) will be in town, and on Sunday afternoon the Osoyoos Coyotes will match skills with Golden.
There have been a number of significant changes to the league since last spring, the greatest of which is the official designation of the KIJHL to Junior “A” status in mid-summer. With this elevation, the league has already brought in a few rule changes to enhance the excitement of the ice. First, each club in the league will now be able to card up to six 20-year olds at any one time, instead of the customary five of previous years. Second, any ‘coincidental minor penalties’ assessed by the officiating crew will have the teams playing four-on-four hockey, which should open up the ice to more excitement. Although it is still early in the transition, the KIJHL is also exploring the feasibility of moving to 4-man officiating crews in the future.
Rockets exhibition tune-up games went well, as Head Coach/GM Chuck Wight and Asst.Coach Jed Houseman had great opportunity to assess plenty of new talent on the ice. Golden will be looking to improve on a fine season from one year ago, where they made great strides in the standings. With nine returning veterans, and a solid mix of talented newcomers, the team looks to move to a higher level of intensity with each game played. Already the goaltending and defence look solid. Rockets will also be looking to maintain (and improve upon) a strong offensive game as well, finishing last year’s regular season with the 4th highest goal-scoring in the league (175).
The Rocket’s 44-game regular season schedule starts this Friday and concludes mid-February 2024, with an exciting post-season to follow.
