By Eric Blow
The Eddie Mountain division race got a lot closer on the weekend. Just eight points separate second place from fifth place (21-13), the smallest gap out of all four divisions in the league.
Creston did their best gutting out a point in Friday’s game against the Ghostriders after Logan Berggren tied the game with 16 seconds left. The Cats went down 2-0 and 3-1 in that game before battling back to force the game to extra time. Down a pair of goals, Vin Jackson got his first of the season after a Fernie player failed to send the puck around the boards and it bounced right in front of the net for Jackson to skate on to.
After the Riders restored their two-goal lead, Berggren answered just over a minute later following a loose puck in the crease and shovelling it past the sprawling Fernie goaltender. Corbin Cockerill tied the game at three with 5:34 to go in the third period, pouncing on a loose puck in the slot. Fernie scored twice more in the game, once to enable Berggren’s late-game heroics, and a second time in overtime to take home two points.
The next night, the Columbia Valley Rockies made their first visit of the season to John Bucyk Arena and ended up scoring five third period goals, walking away with a victory.
It didn’t take long for the Cats to get on the board in this one. Derek Green rifled a shot from the point through traffic that found the back of the net just 4:23 into the first period. What ensued after the goal was a back and forth affair between the two teams that didn’t produce a single goal until the 2:28 mark of the third period – 38 minutes after Green’s tally. It was at this point that the Rockies went to work scoring all five of their goals on 13 shots, with three coming in a span of five minutes and 46 seconds. After all, was said and done the final score was 5-1 Columbia Valley.
With both Fernie and the Rockies leaving Creston with two points, the Cats’ slim lead on second place got even slimmer. They’re one point ahead of the Ghostriders, but do hold the tie break having scored two more goals than Fernie in the three games they’ve played against each other. There were suspensions to come from each game last weekend, but none of them are against Creston players.
Fernie’s Seamus Kieth was suspended for two games for his check-from-behind on Tyler Hamilton, and the Rockies’ Mason Robinson was also given two games for his hit-to-the-head of Logan Rast.
The next home games are Friday, Nov. 8 and Nov. 9 when the Beaver Valley Nitehawks and Golden Rockets are in town. The team is also hosting the players parents weekend on those days so come out, cheer on the team, and show our boys’ families how supportive this community can be!