Local Community Advertising
Rolling with the habit of coming from behind, the Central Okanagan Rockets rallied to defeat the Richmond Jets 5-4 in overtime to claim the bantam AAA-division gold medal at the prestigious Pat Quinn Classic hockey tournament during the Christmas Break.
Kailus Green — off a pass from Tyson Jugnauth — scored on the Rockets’ second shift of the 3-on-3 OT to earn his team its fifth win in six games in the 16-team minor hockey event at Burnaby’s Bill Copeland Arena
The tournament clincher came on the heels of teammate Max Graham scoring his second goal of the game with less than three minutes remaining in regulation time to pull the Rockets even at 4-4 and force the extra frame.
Brayden Skogstad, an affiliate player from the Kelowna Minor Hockey Association’s AA bantam team, had opened the scoring in the first period while Connor Sankey (assisted by Dain Levesque) made it 3-2 in the second period to set up the late-game heroics by Graham and Green.
Wilson Maxfield, selected as the top goaltender in the tournament, shared the win with starter Angelo Zol, who also came through with outstanding performances in the net for the championship team.
That his group of 13- and 14-year-olds was able to pull off the late-rally win wasn’t a surprise to veteran minor hockey coach Eric Blais.
“I thought we carried the play most of the way, but just couldn’t put the puck away,” said Blais, whose team had lost 4-1 to the same Richmond team in round-robin play and had defeated the Jets in the final of a tournament in Coquitlam earlier this season. “It was one of those games where even when we were behind with three minutes to go I felt confident the boys could pull it out.”
Blais added that the strong-willed play of his team in the title game was but a continuation of its steady progress this season.
“This is a tough team to play against,” he explained. “While they’re on the smallish side overall, compared to most of their opponents, they’re also a very fast, hard-working group with lots of skill and they’re determined to execute what we’ve been asking them to do. I’m very proud of the way they’ve bought into the 60-minute game.”
The Rockets, made up of almost entirely Kelowna minor hockey products (Zach McCormick is from Lake Country), went into the highly touted event on a roll, winning their previous four games and the tournament in Coquitlam.
They opened with a 5-3 win over the Victoria Racquet Club in which Carter Schmidt, their leading point-getter in the tournament, scored twice and helped set up goals by Graham, Green and Jugnauth.
In a second round-robin game, against the Burnaby Winter Club’s bantam varsity team, the Rockets jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two periods and hung on for a 6-4 victory. Schmidt again led the offence with a pair of goals while Green, McCormick, Skogstad and Brayden Goncalves added a goal apiece.
Trailing 2-0 midway through the first period, the Rockets scored three straight goals to take the lead and go on to a 4-3 win over the Everett Jr. Silvertips in their third RR encounter. Graham scored the winning goal midway through the third period.
The Central Zone’s only loss came at the hands of Richmond in their final round-robin game, with Schmidt scoring the lone marker in the first period.
Third-period goals by Schmidt and Graham overcame a one-goal deficit as the Rockets edged the California Golden Bears 4-3 in quarter-final play. Jugnauth and Sankey were the other Central zone scorers.
The Rockets took a different route in their semifinal. Instead of coming from behind for the right to play in the title game, they scored the first three goals on the way to a 3-1 triumph over the Arizona Bobcats. Sankey opened the scoring and Schmidt scored twice.
Consistent throughout was the Rockets’ ability to shut down the opposition in the latter stages of the game.
“Our forecheck isn’t easy to execute, but the guys have really worked at getting it right,” said coach Blais. “Teams have a tough time coming out of their own zone — they just don’t know what’s coming at them. It’s a forecheck you don’t see very often.”
Despite their recent success and steady improvement, the Rockets are expecting a demanding challenge during the stretch run of the season as they prepare for a bid to represent the Thompson-Okanagan region at the BC Hockey championship tournament in Prince George.
“The Thompson and North Okanagan teams are very strong as well,” noted Blais. “We’ll have to be at our best to win our league and earn a berth at provincials. If the boys can continue playing the way they did this past week, there’s no reason to believe they can’t be playing for a provincial banner in March.”
Local Community Advertising