Roughriders Handle Miners in Odd Series

The Roughriders celebrate a goal.

Colorado Springs, CO - The Rocky Mountain Roughriders U16AAA team finished a two game series with the Pikes Peak Miners. The first game was held on Saturday at the Promenade at 3:15pm on center ice. The game started out as so many CAHA games do with a lot of hard grinding forechecking.  Each team was struggling to find any flow and both squads were aggressively forechecking the puck. The first period ended in a stalemate.

The second period had the Roughriders hitting their stride. The hard hitting line of Cade Warner, Max Shusterman and Alex Barber set the tempo for the team. Sometimes the 4th line is called on to get the rest of the boys going. Braiden Miller broke the seal on Grant Payne on a beautiful redirection from his new linemate Caleb Pola and defenseman Nate Werhane. The Miners were on their heels most of the period, however their style of play, particularly disrupting the flow of the game, was working pretty well for them. The Miners knotted the game up at one goal apiece at 7:40 of the second when Jeremy Solat beat Jared Young short side. Perhaps they had lulled Young to sleep as he only saw 5 shots the entire period.

The third period was all Roughriders. Coach Paris, not happy with what he was watching, shook up his top two lines. Bilotta was asked to center Maul and Fushimi while Miller moved over with Pola and Sanchez. The move proved beneficial as the varying styles of play of the new lines complemented each other well. The Roughriders closed out the scoring and secured a 3-1 victory when Fushimi buried a rebound sent in by Bilotta and Maul.

Jared Young faced 21 shots and made 20 saves for a 95.2% save percentage.

On Sunday the Rougriders traveled down in to Pikes Peak country to settle up on the second game of the series. The second matchup had the Roughriders working against a trapping and chaotic Miners system. The game, honestly, was a little difficult to watch as a fan as all the flow in the game is gone. The Roughriders kept the puck in the offensive zone for a majority of the game.

At just 1:17 of the first period, Vincent Guimond netted the first goal and the eventual game winner when he beat Tanner Saucerman with a little sauce of this own. The Roughriders continued the offensive pressure and ended up netting a total of 4 goals and keeping the Miners off the scoreboard.

The new lines, although still working on chemistry, started producing well and now look forward to this weekend's matchup against in-state rivals, Colorado Thunderbirds.

Official Gamesheet Game 1

Official Gamesheet Game 2