Rockets’ home opener celebration
The North Dundas Rockets celebrated their home opener on Sat., Oct. 14, as they welcomed the Blackburn Inferno to the Chesterville Arena. The Rockets have played five previous games but due to the ice not going in until the first of October this was their first home game of the season. After the player introductions, the Rockets had members of both the Winchester and Chesterville Lions Clubs come out for the ceremonial puck drop. The Captains from both teams were called to centre ice. The Rockets’ Captain Braden Van Kessel (left), Winchester Lions’ Guy Belliveau and John Cinnamon, Chesterville Lions’ Jordan Hodge, Linesman Simon Lavictoire, and the Inferno Captain Nicholas Seguin all had the honours. Both Lions’ clubs made donations to the Rockets for the purchase of their new jerseys this year.        Courtesy photo

Jeff Moore
Record Staff
CHESTERVILLE — The North Dundas Rockets had two games this past weekend as they travelled to Metcalfe on Friday night to take on the Jets and then welcomed the Blackburn Inferno to the Chesterville Arena on Saturday night in their home opener,

Rockets 8 Inferno 2
The North Dundas Rockets welcomed the Blackburn Inferno to the Chesterville Arena on Sat., Oct. 14, in the NCJHL for their home opener. The Rockets went into the game tied with three other teams in the third spot after they lost a heartbreaker the previous night to the Metcalfe Jets. The expansion Inferno went into the game with a 2-3 record and were sitting in the tenth seed.

The Rockets opened the scoring at 15:04 of the first period as Landon Veenstra snapped one home from Shawn Simms and Bryden Van Kessel on the power play to take a 1-0 lead. The Rockets took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The Inferno scored at 3:28 of the second period tying the game at one.

The Rockets took the lead at 3:48 when Connor Roth bulged the twine from Veenstra and Dylan Nixon. The Rockets made it 3-1 at 4:03 as Brad Stitt slapped one home from Brodie Barkley and Chris Marchand and 4-1 at 7:12 as Stitt scored his second of the game from Marchand and Barkley.

The Rockets made it 5-1 when Veenstra scored his second of the game from Roth short-handed. The Inferno got one back with just 55 seconds remaining in the second period. The Rockets took a 5-2 lead into the second intermission. Veenstra completed his hat trick at 5:13 of the third period from Roth and Simms to give the Rockets a 6-2 lead.

Veenstra wasn’t done there as he added his fourth of the game at 17:40 from Simms and Van Kessel. The Rockets closed out the scoring with 1:38 remaining in the game as McKay Balaton sniped one from Bailey Norman and Ethan Gallant and the Rockets took their home opener 8-2 moving into a second-place tie.

Picking up the win in the Rockets’ goal was Jason Buma with 29 saves on 31 shots.

Jets 9 Rockets 8 (OT)
The North Dundas Rockets travelled to the Larry Robinson Arena in Metcalfe to take on the Jets on Fri., Oct. 13, in the NCJHL. The Rockets went into the game in a third-place tie with the Cumberland Bandits with six points apiece and trailed the Gatineau Hull-Volant with eight points in second and the Papineau Vikings in first place with 10 points. The Jets sat just behind the Rockets in a fifth-place tie with a plethora of teams.

The Jets opened the scoring at the two-minute mark of the opening frame as Ryan Carbonette scored unassisted but the Rockets answered with a goal at 2:35 as McKay Balaton fired one to the back of the net from Tyson Sherrer and Brad Stitt, tying the game at one.

The Rockets took their first lead of the game when Chris Marchand powered one home from Dylan Nixon at 7:09 but the Jets tied it at 12:06 as Justin Raymond scored from Sebastien Roy. The Rockets retook the lead at 13:45 as Justin Lefebvre snapped one home unassisted but the Jets tied the game again at 17:16 as William Lachapelle scored from Tyler Jodoin.

The Rockets closed out the scoring in the first period with 19 seconds remaining as Bryden Van Kessel roofed one unassisted. The Rockets took a 4-3 lead into the first intermission. The Jets tied the game at the two-minute mark of the second period as Lachapelle scored from Jodoin and took the lead at 4:35 when William Baudet scored from Raymond.

The Rockets tied the game at five when Van Kessel scored his second of the game from Brodie Barkley and Lefebvre at 6:56. The Rockets and Jets got into a little scuffle at around the 11 minute mark and Balaton was assessed a match penalty for kicking* and the Jets took advantage of that major as Phil Brunet scored at 12:10 from Jodoin and Kirkland Reaney and at 12:34 when Lachapelle completed his hat trick from Gino Peloso and Cameron Gallant.

Van Kessel completed his hat trick at 17:26 from Barkley and Marchand to make it 7-6 but the Rockets trailed, heading into the second intermission. The Rockets tied the game at seven when Shawn Simms found the back of the net from Nixon at 5:31 of the third period. The Jets retook the lead when Roy scored from Jacob Gregoire and Gallant at 15:27.

With time winding down, the Rockets pulled their goalie in favour off an extra attacker and it paid off as Marchand bulged the twine with just 24 seconds remaining in regulation from Van Kessel. Neither team was able to score before the final buzzer went off so the game headed to a four-minute four-on-four overtime period.

With 1:11 remaining in the first overtime, the Jets’ Lachapelle became the hero after scoring his fourth of the game from Jodoin as the Jets took the game 9-8. Picking up the win in the Jets’ goal was Danik Gervais and suffering the loss in the Rockets’ goal was Max Eves. *The Rockets protested the game and the match penalty against Balaton was dropped but it is unclear what will happen with the two goals scored on the powerplay.

Up next:
Fri., Oct. 20, 8:30 p.m., Rockets vs. Blackburn Inferno, Blackburn Arena, Ottawa; Sat., Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m., Rockets vs. South Grenville Rangers, Chesterville Arena, Chesterville.