Redvers Rockets win second Big Six championship

By David Willberg

For the second time in their franchise history, the Redvers Rockets are the Big Six Hockey League champions.

The Rockets routed the Moosoimin Rangers 10-2 Friday night in Redvers to sweep the best-offive league final in three games.

Redvers’ last championship came in 2018.

The Rockets eliminated any suspense early in Game 3 by scoring four times in the first period and adding another early in the second for a 5-0 lead. They led 7-1 after two.

Presten Kopeck had three of Redvers’ first five goals and finished with four goals and two assists on the night.

Kenton Miller had two goals and three helpers. Todd Gervais, Daylin Smallchild, Bradey Fidierchuk and Brady Gaudet also scored.

Cody Matthewson was in goal for Redvers in the clinching game.

Dawson Springer had both Moosomin goals.

Levi Horn and Kyler Beckett split the goaltending duties for Moosomin.

Coach Ken Potapinski said their goaltending was really good this season, while the defence and the forwards were very strong.

The Rockets were the class of the Big Six almost from the start of the season. After a loss to the Oxbow Huskies on opening night in November, Redvers rattled off 19 straight wins in the regular season to finish first overall.

“Oxbow came out really strong [that night], and we weren’t really ready. Then we just focused on each game at a time after that and improved a few things and it worked out all right,” said Potapinski.

The Rockets went 8-0 in the playoffs and outscored their opponents 57-12.

“It’s a really strong league,” said Potapinski. “The top four, five or six teams are very strong. You can’t take a night off at all.”

In the final, the Rockets converted their chances and the defence played pretty well, Potapinski said. Redvers won Game 1 6-3 and Game 2 3-1, but Moosomin had the lead in both contests.

At the start of the season, the Rockets knew they had a really good team. Brothers Jordon and Koltyn Miller and their cousin Kenton were back for this season. Jordon Miller suffered a fractured fibula in his leg in Game 2 of the league final while blocking a shot, but he still finished the game. He didn’t find out the ex- tent of the injury until after the game.

Potapinski was the head coach of the 2018 team, and they have a lot of players from that squad who played this year. They also have a lot of players from the 2020 team that made it to the league final against the Carnduff Red Devils, only to have the series dashed by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, and the 2022 team, which lost to Carnduff in the final.

“I think everybody thought about it all summer, and it left a sore spot, so we definitely wanted to prove something after last year,” said Potapinski.

But they have also picked up some really good players who have made a big impact on the team’s success.

Most of the players on the Rockets are homegrown talents who grew up cheering for the senior Rockets.

“It’s a good minor hockey system that they put through, and a really good bunch of devoted parents at the start of the year,” said Potapinski.

Some move on to play junior hockey elsewhere, but a lot of the players are from farm families and they come back to Redvers to be part of the business after they are finished playing junior and post-secondary hockey.