Rocky Mountain Roughriders Advance to Semi-Finals at Chicago Nike Bauer 2010

Max Ross and Yannick Crete Celebrate

Darien, IL - The Rocky Mountain Roughriders advanced to the semi-final round at the 2010 Chicago Nike Bauer Invitational tournament by beating the New Jersey Freeze 3-0.  Next on the radar were the Indianapolis Jr. Ice. The Jr. Ice were undefeated coming into the matchup and had outscored their opponents 21-6 in the seeding round. Drew Doyon and Joe Chitwood tallied up the bulk of the scoring for the Jr. Ice and John Paris, Jr. was keen on keeping those two guys off the scoreboard.

The Roughriders struck first when Yannick Crete slid the puck past Alex Zion. Crete was assisted by Adam Durkee and Michael Buonincontri to take the early 1-0 lead at 2:00 of the first period. Exactly 34 seconds later Drew Doyon squeezed the puck past Joakim Jutras nullifying the Roughriders lead.

At 9:37 in the first, Adam Durkee nabbed a pass from Yannick Crete buried the puck and grabbed the lead back from the Jr. Ice. The Roughriders showed a lot of patience and discipline playing in the shortened playoff format. Both teams managed to stay out of the penalty box for the entire match.

Joey Marchese poured the heat onto the Jr. Ice when his linemate RJ Salvato fed him a pass in front of the net to put the Roughriders up 3-1. Six seconds later Durkee nabbed another goal putting the Roughriders up by 3.

The Jr. Ice weren't going to go away quietly and in fact had played a really great game, but were unable to put the points on the board when it counted. At 11:15 of the second, Cory Day pulled the Jr. Ice a goal closer to narrow the gap to 4-2.

With just over a minute left to play in the game, the Jr. Ice pulled their goalie to get the extra attacker on the ice. The extra attacker was able to help get a few final shots on goal, however a turnover in the neutral zone found the puck on Joey Marchese's stick and he was able to carry it into the empty net to seal the win for the Roughriders.

The Rocky Mountain Roughriders U16 AAA team advances to the Championship game to take on the winner of the Tampa Bay Alliance and Hatfield Ice Dogs.  The Tampa Bay Alliance ended up winning that game 2-1 in an Overtime shootout.


Official Gamesheet