Rockies Weekly Roundup – Week 19 – Regular Season Ends & Playoffs Begin

The final week of the regular season wrapped up on Saturday night after the Rockies finished week 19 with two more wins.

On Friday February 18th, the Rockies were in Fernie playing their second-last regular season game against a tough Ghostrider squad. Knowing that Fernie could very well be the Rockies’ first round matchup in the playoffs, the game certainly had a bit of a playoff atmosphere to it. Kyran Gromnisky (25) got things started for the Rockies at 8:52 from Owen Hughes (11) and Drew Tkachuk (13). The Ghostriders countered later in the period at 17:20 before Jakob McLean (12) restored the Rockies’ lead at 19:19 on the power play.

The second period had quite a bit of back and forth with loads of physicality and scoring opportunities but it was ultimately  the Ghostriders who struck first on the powerplay at 13:55. After settling down and continuing to battle, leading goal-scorer Kayde Kinaschuk (29) got the Rockies on top once again at 17:58 of the second period assisted by Reed Sparrow (7). The third period had much of the same intensity and battling as the first two, but goaltender Nicholas Grady (33) stood tall stopping 28 of 30 shots en route to another Rockies win.

Forward Jonah Fournier (26) battles in front of the Golden net just before the Rockies are able to put one past the Golden netminder.

Saturday’s matchup against the Golden Rockets was back at home at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena in front of a very solid crowd of 364. Similar to the game on Friday night, this game had a very playoff-like atmosphere to it with increased intensity, a lot of body-checking, and scoring opportunities going both ways. Through the first two periods, there was no scoring as both the Rockets goaltender and the Rockies Goaltender Scott Thompson (30) were on top of their games. Golden broke open the scoring shorthanded at 5:07 of the third after a mishandled giveaway before Reed Sparrow (7) quickly answered the bell to tie the game at one a piece at 6:29. Opportunities were plentiful for the Rockies following Sparrow’s goal and just over three minutes later, Jakob Mclean (12) gave the Rockies the 2-1 lead with assists from Jonah Fournier (26) and Tyson Tisdale (24). Scott Thompson (33) shut the door the rest of the way as the Rockies won their final game of the season 2-1.

The Columbia Valley Rockies now finish their 2021-22 regular season campaign with a final record of 30-9-2-1 amassing 63 points good enough for second place in the division just one point behind first.