Review staff
They may be heading to the deep end of the pool, but the Rimbey Rock still have their heads above water following a big 4-3 overtime victory over the Ponoka Stampeders last Wednesday night that clinched second place for the local squad in the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s Prairie Division.
The teams traded goals through the game with Ponoka’s Marc Migneault opening the scoring at 6:08 of the first period with an unassisted goal. The Rock responded with one of their own at 13:28 when Wyatt Robinson scored his seventh of the season from Calvin Carlson.
The second period was much the same as Kevin Henderson picked up his ninth goal of the year from Dylan Buffalo and Kyle Kinley at 6:43 to regain the lead for the Stampeders but again the Rock responded on Alex Gundy’s seventh of the season at 8:38 from Robinson and Ted Lawrance.
The seesaw battle continued into the third period as again Ponoka took the lead at 7:46 on Mark Lauer’s 16th from Kelsey Russell and Doug MacMillan.
Things were looking awful grim for the Rock as the clock ticked down but with only 46 seconds remaining in the game, Davin Waisanen found the twine from Robinson again and Cody Lewis to send the game to overtime.
It didn’t take very long to settle the affair however as just nine seconds in the Rock sealed their fate – and the Stampeder’s, when Damon Dreeshen picked up his third goal of the season from Sokhes Auger and Justin Kruger on the powerplay.
Goaltender Zach Cross turned aside 21 of 24 shots in the net for the Rock while Rick Andreychuk stopped 33 of 37 for the Stampeders.
The Rock were 0 for 3 on the powerplay while the Stampeders were 1 for 8.
Finishing in second place in the Prairie Division sets up the Rock for a first round playoff series against the Red Deer Vipers who finished in third place in the Lakes Division however the Vipers accumulated far more points with at least ten more victories than the Rock.
As of press time on Friday afternoon, dates and times of the first round of playoffs were not available.