Last weekend, the Golden Rockets were back in the friendly confines of the Plywood Palace, to do battle on a couple of fronts. Friday, the team tangled with the Nelson Leafs in the season home opener, while Saturday evening saw the club matching skills in an exciting contest against the Chase Heat.
A great deal of anticipation was in the air Friday night, as the Rockets hit the ice in their opening home game of the 2024-25 KIJHL season. While the play was close for much of the game, it was the southern visitors who made the most of their opportunities, and prevailed at the final whistle with a 4-1 win.
Prior to the start of the contest a ceremonial face-off was held at centre-ice, where long-time Golden referee and umpire Peter Shular had the honour of dropping the puck for the opening game, and was acknowledged for his decades of involvement in sports throughout the Columbia Valley, the province, as well as several locations around the globe.
Before a boisterous hometown crowd, the Rockets came out of the dressing room with a definite spark in their step. Controlling much of the play in the opening ten minutes, the club had several great chances to score, particularly with a two-man advantage on the powerplay early. But Nelson’s Riley Hicks in the Leafs net was equal to the task with great lateral movement.
At the 12:06 mark, it appeared that Nelson had taken the early lead, with a shot deflecting off the end boards into the Golden net. But the tally was disallowed as it was determined the drive had hit a hand in front. A couple of minutes later, it was Rocket’s netminder Riley Deck coming to the forefront, making a tremendous glove save off a point-blank shot from the top of the circle. No scoring in the first period.
One of the nemesis in the Rockets game which will receive attention, has been the opposition connecting early in a period for a goal. Once again this held true, as the visitors moved into a quick 2-0 lead on the strength of a pair of tallies in a mere :28 seconds. Golden got one of those back at 8:42, as talented forward Brayden Bissell fed a smooth pass to Kanye Huang on the right wing, who banged it home along the ice just inside the post. The Leafs however would restore the two-goal margin at 14:31 when the Rockets were caught on a bad line-change.
Nelson would extend their lead further in the early minutes of the third period, before Golden started to apply pressure. Midway through the frame on a powerplay, the Rockets again generated several scoring chances, only to be once again robbed by Hicks, who stood his ground between the pipes. Final score was 4-1. Nelson outshot Golden 35-31.
Saturday evening’s matchup with Chase was a thrilling contest from start to finish, with a goaltender’s duel highlighted by the play of Chase netminder Stanislav Stefaniv and Golden’s Landon Garbitt.
The Rockets would hit the scoreboard first, midway through the opening frame, when veteran defenceman Brock McIlwain neatly broke up a play at centre ice, and fed a quick pass to Kanye Huang on the right wing. The Rocket speedster worked his way around the Heat defence and fired a quick, low wristshot to the back of the twine. Golden would carry that lead into the second period, mainly on the strength of a pair of tremendous saves by Garbitt before the horn.
In the middle stanza, the visitors would tie things at 1-1 just four minutes in, on the power play, with an Andrew Morris tally. Late in the period, Garbitt once again shone in the Golden net, turning aside a Chase breakaway.
Both clubs went end-to-end for much of the final period, as the play maintained a high tempo. It looked like overtime was looming in this game until, at the 16:01 mark, Chase rookie Jack Smith found the back of the net, with the eventual winner through a maze of players in front. Golden pulled their netminder in the final minute, but couldn’t find the equalizer as Stefaniv came up with a pair of great saves. Final score was 2-1.
This weekend, the Kicking Horse stars are headed south, for a two-game road swing to the Neil Murdoch Division where they will be taking on Spokane Friday and Castlegar Saturday.
Read all about the Golden Rockets team here.
