“We competed”

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“You get that one guy back and the power play starts clicking”, a pleased assistant coach Josh MacNevin said after the game. “He is a good player. He has some speed, and boy, did he have some great chances tonight”.

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Golder led all players with a game-high nine shots on net, which for the Smithers BC resident was also a season-high.

Grady Lenton, with his third goal of the season and first in 11 games, and Gabriel Szturc, wearing the ‘C’ for the first time since being named captain on Thursday, scored in the teams’ first road win in seven games.

RocketFAN asked MacNevin about how his team reacted when the score was 2-1, and despite holding the one-goal lead, the game was still very much in doubt.

“It could have been one of those situations of here we go again, but we stuck with it, kept at it, and worked. We worked the right way tonight and I didn’t sense a lot of panic.”

The win moved the Rockets within seven points of the Giants for seventh place in the Western Conference and vaulted the team two points up on the Victoria Royals, a 7-6 overtime losers in Portland, in the fight for the final playoff spot.

“I thought we competed really well”, MacNevin told RocketFAN. “I thought we won some one-on-one battles. We executed our systems. We managed the lines pretty well. We worked”.

The Rockets, who were out-scored 27-7 during a six-game road losing streak, could have had more than just four goals, with Giants goaltender Jesper Vikman making a solid stop on Adam Kydd in tight, Turner McMillen on a breakaway and Trae Johnson, who was within inches of scoring his first goal with his new team, with video review showing the puck didn’t completely cross the goal line.

“We had a lot of chances”, MacNevin continued. “It is good to see we are getting those chances. Last weekend against Victoria we were getting chances but not converting, but now they are starting to go in. Now we need to continue to work hard so we get those bounces.”

The Rockets’ penalty-killing unit was the story of the game.

While killing off eight penalties, Szturc’s 11^th goal of the season, shorthanded, came when the score was 2-1.

It was the team’s third shorthanded goal of the season.

“I don’t know if there was one specific instance in a turning point,” MacNevin admitted. “We came out ready to play right from the opening faceoff. We had some big games from John Babcock, and just a real solid team effort.”

The road win was the teams’ 8^th of the season, and first in over a month.

The Rockets were a 6-0 winner in Lethbridge on December 16^th with Golder scoring once and adding three assists, good enough for first-star status.

With the monkey off the back of a team that has struggled to win games away from Prospera Place, MacNevin said they must stay focused with more big games in front of them.

“We as coaches go into the dressing, good or bad, and try to get them to be ready for the next one, especially considering we play the same team here (Saturday) back home.

“Without question, a sense of relief after this one”.