Samantha Holmes suffered a concussion last week and is questionable for this week’s games.
photo courtesy dave holland
Rockies lose opener
Richard Saad
Standard Reporter
The first game of the season for the Rockies of the WWHL was spirited, but for the hometown crowd, the wrong team won.
After a slow start against the Edmonton Chimos, the Rockies picked up the pace and outplayed their rivals from the north for the majority of the game. At one point, the Rockies outshot the Chimos 12-6 but, unfortunately, superb goaltending from Keely Brown kept them in the lead with a score of 2-0 through the middle of the second period.
"Sunday was a really good game for us," said Samantha Holmes, forward for the Strathmore Rockies of the WWHL. "We outplayed them but we came up against a really hot goalie."
The plethora of shots that the Rockies put up were in keeping with the style that the team employs, which is a hard-nosed, grinding team that gets a lot of shots on net. This system comes straight down from Rockies head coach Tom Molloy.
Despite the shots, the Rockies couldn’t sustain the pressure and had a hard time clearing their own net.
"He’s been preaching that to us since day one but we just couldn’t put the puck past their goalie," said Holmes.
The Rockies did manage to get a puck past Brown once in the second period when rookie Reagan Fischer scored and cut the Chimos’ lead down to one. It stayed that way through the rest of the game, despite the Rockies managing to outshoot the Chimos.
"We’re just going to have to get more traffic in front of the net next time we play them," said Holmes, adding that sometimes the team shot the puck just to increase their shot total and not necessarily in an attempt to score.
"Shooting to score is really important and that’s something we’ll have to really try hard for," said Holmes.
The Rockies will get two more chances for revenge against the Chimos next week, in back-to-back matches on Saturday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 15.
Holmes said she is not worried about their chances, though, because she feels the team is loaded with depth and talent over their three lines. It shouldn’t be hard to sustain an attack style of play for 60 minutes. Holmes added because their rivalry with Edmonton is so spirited, they will use last week’s loss as motivation to extract revenge.
"We want to keep them on their toes, so I’m excited for that," said Holmes.
Admittedly, the Rockies did start slow but Holmes feels that as the game went on, the team started feeling better about their game, keeping the Chimos out of their own zone for much of the second and third periods.
"After the game, all the players were on the same page so Ithink it’s really positive. We know what we have to do for the next game."
Holmes’ play is questionable for next week’s games as she suffered a concussion in the middle of the third period. She was tripped in the third period while on a partial breakaway. She fell awkwardly and landed hard against the boards.
"Iwas going pretty fast and it was close to the net," said Holmes. There was no call on the play by the referees. "Iwould have liked to have had a penalty shot."
This is not her first concussion, and Holmes will take some time to rest before heading back onto the ice. She hasn’t skated since last Sunday. She is not sure if she will play next weekend but the decision will most likely be a game-time one.
"Once my symptoms subside, I’ll try to get back on the bike and take it from there," said Holmes.
Despite her absence, Holmes believes the team has plenty of depth to defeat the Chimos on home ice. "I’m pretty confident that the players will keep going strong," said Holmes.