By Stephanie Stevens
It was a rough few games for the Columbia Valley Rockies last week, but it’s the tempering that creates the strongest steel.
The team played against the Kimberley Dynamiters on Tuesday, Oct. 29 in Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena and then again Friday Nov. 1, but the division leading Nitros took both games.
“It was a tough week for us … big divisional games against very good teams,” said associate coach Tucker Braund. “We played well Tuesday, but a stretch of two and a half minutes between the second and third period killed us. We have to learn from that. Especially being up 2-0 after the first, teams aren’t going to roll over and die for us. We have to work for 60 minutes.”
Scoring in the Tuesday game was Johnny Lozeman in the first (assists from Bryan Kim and Carter Hensch) and Teo Fath (Sam Cristo) and Ashton Sledz (Kobe Mason and Lozeman) in the third. But the final tally was 6-3 for the Nitros.
Goalie Jaiden Jakubowski stopped 37 of 43 shots on goal.
“We played a great game Friday. It was a playoff-like atmosphere,” said Braund of the November 1 rematch. “Two bad bounces went their way and we lost but we should feel good about how we played. It was a solid 60 minute effort, we just have to find a way to get the bounces going our way.”
Friday’s first period scoring action was courtesy of Peter Godley (Sledz), followed in the second by an unassisted goal by Ethan Cerone. Fath (Mason) potted one more in the third, but those lucky bounces saw the game go to Kimberley 4-3.
Ryan Bain was between the pipes and kept 24 of 28 shots out of the net.
November 2 saw the Rockies head to Fernie to square off against the Ghostriders, but nerves and a few more bad bounces saw the game go to the ‘Riders.
“Fernie is always a bit of a shock to the new players and we have 17 new ones,” said Braund. “I don’t think we have won a first game there in the three years that I’ve been here. We settled in and had a better second period and got going, but again a bad bounce cost us the game.”
Scoring in the Fernie game started in the second for the Rockies with Cerone (Jack Hefferan) followed by Sledz (Godley).
Jakubowski was between the pipes and stopped 28 of 32 shots.
“We are learning that our division is really tough and there are no easy games … there’s no easy games in our league, really,” said Braund. “We are working on having better starts to periods but we really like our team, we have a good solid team who with a few tweaks are going to be really hard to stop. Better we learn these lessons now than in February. It’s a developmental stage right now and we are developing a team to take a deep run in the playoffs.”
The Rockies will be in Creston Friday squaring off with the Thundercats, and back home in the Eddie Saturday taking another run at the Ghostriders.
PHOTO STEPHANIE STEVENS
