A pair of impressive wins for the Golden Rockets over the weekend, as they kept pace in the race for top spot in the tough Eddie Mountain Divisional standings.
Here’s a quick review of the Rocket’s recent impressive results…………..
Friday, Oct.28th, 2022 Rockets 9 Wranglers 1
This huge score would seem to indicate that the Rockets had total control in this game from start to finish, but in actuality this wasn’t quite the case. In the early portion of the opening period, the visitors had the upper hand with good offensive pressure in the Golden end of the ice. But some superb defensive work by the Rockets combined with solid netminding from Levi Hall kept the game scoreless.
It wasn’t until the 4:00 minute mark that the Rockets hit for their first shot on 100 Mile House goalie Tysen Smith, and at that point the local stars caught fire. At 7:00, lanky forward Drayden Gibson fed a nice pass to Hayden Barr flying down the left wing. After making a good move on the 100Mile defence, Hayden slid a perfect cross-ice pass to Evan Tsadilas on the right side, and the one-timer found the back of the cage. One minute later, Jordan Lario and Levi Lamotte put on a passing clinic. Breaking in full-speed on a 2-on-1 rush and, after three quick and precise tape-to-tape passes between the pair, Lario fired it home for a 2-0 lead.
That margin was extended at 9:24 when Aleksander Jirousek neatly kept the puck in at the opposition blueline, fed Brydon Foster the puck and the crafty winger hit for his third goal of the year with a quick wristshot under the arm of the Wrangler goalie.
And the Rockets weren’t done there. At 14:15, after seeing open-ice down the left side, Ethan Aebly raced in from his blueline position, took a good feed from Evan Tsadilas and Austin Angus, and made no mistake extending the lead to 4-0. Shortly after, 100 Mile House finally got on the board, with a powerplay goal from Presley Gordon, who got in behind the Golden defence and tucked the puck past Hall.
Two goals in the middle period extended the lead further. At 7:33 Ethan Aebly did some great work in the corner to take a hard shot on net, and Kylow Monkman found the range, firing home the puck from a huge rebound from the top of the slot. At 16:24 Liam Furlong’s point drive found its way through a maze of players in front, to run the score to 6-1.
The Rockets added three more tallies in the final frame. Just :48 seconds in, a tic-tac-toe play from Levi Lamotte on the boards, to Jordan Lario behind the net, to Nick Morin in the low slot got things going. At 8:49, Rocket’s rugged rearguard Aleksander Jirousek struck for his first goal of the season, with a blistering point shot to the back of the net. Golden’s speedy forward Nick Morin’s second goal of the contest at 16:44 completed the scoring. 100 Mile House put on some good offensive pressure late, but couldn’t get one past Levi Hall.
Final score was 9-1. Shots were surprisingly fairly even at 39-38.
Saturday, Oct. 29th, 2022 Rockets 3 Creston 1
The “return” match to the Johnny Bucyk Arena in Creston had just one thing on the minds of the Rockets, and that was to avenge a 7-4 loss just a scant seven days prior. And that’s just how this game unfolded. The Rockets were ready from the start.
Playing a strong, disciplined game throughout, the Goldenites held their ground defensively and applied consistent offensive pressure on the ThunderCats. The first period was fairly even territorial-wise, however it was the Rockets who connected on their opportunities. Goals by slick forward Zac Suidy (his 2nd of the season with assists to Dominic Fiorentino and Gavin Kennedy), and fiery Nick Morin (with his 10th tally following a great setup from Jordan Lario and Levi Lamotte), moved the club into a 2-0 lead at the end of twenty minutes.
The ThunderCats got one of those goals back in the middle stanza, to cut the margin to 2-1 off the stick of Nikolai Morrison. A bit of penalty trouble early in the frame was countered with some great penalty-killing by the Rockets.
Creston threw everything they had at the Rockets in the final period, but to no avail. Again, solid defensive alignment coupled with strong netminding kept the opposition at bay. The strong play allowed the Rockets to add an Ethan Aebly empty-netter at 19:06, for the 3-1 victory. Creston outshot Golden 40-32.
