The Golden Rockets 2024-25 season came to an abrupt end last week with a pair of road losses, allowing the Creston Valley ThunderCats to slide into the fourth, and final, playoff position in the Eddie Mountain Division standings.
Tuesday night on the road, the club was edged out 5-4 by the Fernie Ghostriders in a battle which saw specialty teams coming to the forefront, as the two clubs combined for no less than three powerplay markers coupled with a trio of shorthanded tallies.
Rockets found themselves behind 2-1 after twenty minutes, with talented forward Chase Pilling hitting for the Golden goal with the man-advantage.
The KickingHorse crew took over much of the play in the middle frame, and moved into a 4-3 lead after forty minutes on the strength of a powerplay goal off the stick of the team’s leading scorer Brayden Bissell. A pair of Rocket shorthanded goals in the space of just :16 seconds shortly afterwards opened up a 4-2 lead, with Connor Martel and Cooper Thompson finding the trigger. Fernie would reply with a single tally later in the period.
The Ghostriders began to pick away at the lead in the third period, drastically outshooting Golden. Lanky Rocket netminder Landon Garbitt was outstanding turning aside 17 Fernie drives in the process, but the southerners still managed to find the back of the net twice, to take a 5-4 win.
Saturday night in Kimberley, the Rockets moved into a solid 1-0 lead in the first period, with Jackson Gair feeding Deegan Bert for his 6th goal of the year.
No scoring in the middle stanza, with little room to manoeuvre around the ice.
Kimberley would start the third period with a pair of tallies to take the lead. Golden would reply with a Brandon Spilchen goal at 14:44, but that was as close as they would get in this game, as the Nitro’s added another pair late in the period to take the contest 4-2.
Despite the early exit prior to the post-season, the Rockets management and staff have many positives to analyze and build upon for next year. Defensively, the squad was solid on the blueline and in-between the pipes. The team was very competitive all season long, having played in no less than 19 one-goal games. With this, and seeing the team being involved in an incredible 11 overtime/shootout matchups, some added offensive success would have drastically altered the Rockets final positioning in the standings.
That rebuild will be starting next month, with the Golden Rockets Spring Showcase Camp slated for the Plywood Palace March 27th-30th. Check the Rockets website for further information.
Written by Tom Stanton
