Tuesday, February 8th, 2022 Creston 4 Rockets 3
For the second time in the last three games, sixty minutes wasn’t enough to decide a winner.
Last Saturday, the Rockets pulled out an exciting 6-5 win over Fernie in a game requiring a player-shootout, and Tuesday saw their contest against Creston again extended into an extra session to declare a winner.
Tuesday evening matchup at the Plywood Palace started with the Rockets taking a minor penalty just forty seconds into the game. Not long after that, the club found themselves playing 2-men short with a second infraction. Good, solid penalty-kills kept the game scoreless.
ThunderCats kept up the pressure throughout the period, and Golden scoring chances were very limited.
The only goal of the first period came at 13:44 when Creston’s Liam Hennessy managed to get one behind Levi Hall for a 1-0 lead.
The middle frame was very close-checking for the first five minutes, with both teams buckling down defensively. Golden tied the game at th 6:01 mark, when Jeff Mamuad’s snapshot from the right side baffled Carlos Siso in the Creston net.
Midway into the period, the Rockets took the lead. From the offensive face-off, Jeff Mamuad drew the puck back to Zac Siudy, and his quick release found twine for his 4th of the year.
The see-saw battle continued as Creston tied things up at 16:25 with Hassen Himour finding the range with a wristshot to the top corner.
Early in the third period, the Rockets restored the one-goal lead, as a neat backpass along the boards by Kade Cochlan sent Aidan Ballance in the clear, and he tucked the puck into net with a hard drive from ten feet out. Creston didn’t quit though, and found the equalizer at the 13:10 mark, on the power play, with a Campbell McLean marker. The 3-3 score held until the end of regulation time.
In the 3-on-3 overtime session, both clubs were looking to end the game early. Just :20 seconds in, Rocket’s Ethan Aebly broke in all alone on the Cats goal, but Siso came up big. In the subsequent transition as the puck went up ice, Creston’s Luke Chakrabarti wristshot from the left side handcuffed Hall, as the visitors took a 4-3 win. Creston outshot the Golden 47-22.
The single point for the Rockets put them mathematically into the post-season against either Columbia Valley or Kimberley in the first round.
