After losing three straight games, including an essentially unheard of 10-1 loss at the hands of Beaver Valley, the Kimberley Dynamiters got a much-needed win on Saturday night on home ice, smoking the Golden Rockets 9-1.
Last weekend simply did not go their way, according to Dynamiters head coach and general manager. After the 10-1 loss in Beaver Valley, the Nitros nearly righted the ship, but fell to the Nelson Leafs in overtime with a final score of 7-6.
"It was just a rough go, a couple guys had a rough night, that’s all," Stuart said. "After 40 minutes the shots were actually even and I thought scoring chances were even, but we were down 6-1. Those games happen.
"We were excellent in Nelson. We held them to 14 shots inside of our zone, probably should have won 6-1, 6-2, it was just one of those weekends where things weren’t going our way."
The Dynamiters then started off this past weekend's at-home doubleheader with a 4-2 loss to the Columbia Valley Rockies.
"We weren’t at our worst last night, but we weren’t very good," Stuart said. "Too many lazy puck decisions, too may soft puck battles — Columbia Valley definitely deserved to win tonight and I thought tonight we were obviously much better, much more focused and much more intense. Last night was probably one of our worst games in terms of puck decisions."
Saturday night's game was a different story as the Nitros welcomed the Golden Rockets to the Civic Centre. Given the Dynamiters are currently sitting in first in their division and second overall in the league, compared to last and third-last respectively for the Rockets, the team and their fans were expecting a win and they got one in resounding fashion.
Nolan Kelly opened the scoring in the first period and Billy Kiray made it 2-0 heading into the first, and the goals just kept on coming.
Nate Murdoch got one eight minutes into the second period and then followed it up with a penalty shot goal just a few minutes later.
Danik Reeves then got his first of the night, followed by a chaotic goal from Tyler Lindal. Golden scored their only goal of the evening less than a minute into the first period. The Nitros soon fired back, with Reeves getting goal number two.
After Tristan Weill scored his eighth of the season, Reeves secured himself a hat trick and his team a commanding 9-1 victory.
"It felt pretty good," Reeves said of his hat trick in his inaugural season with the Kimberley Dynamiters. "I made sure on that four-on-four, I was like ‘okay I’ve got to go score this third one.’ So when I got the puck I knew I had to do something about it."
"This was definitely a needed win, we didn’t want to go four-straight, I think we knew going into this one that we had to whoop ‘em, so we got it done and looking forward to the rest of our games coming up here.
"My confidence is pretty good right now, so just will try to keep it going for the next few games. I think just building off of this would be great. The amount of energy we had going into this was great and if we can bring that into Fernie it would be pretty sweet."
Born in Cranbrook, Reeves played for the Kootenay Hockey Academy's U18 AA program as well as seven games with the Cranbrook Bucks. He's had 12 points in his last eight games and only has four games this season where he hasn't scored at least one point.
"Danik is extremely skilled, with great vision," Stuart said. "He's starting to consistently contribute and has become a primary point scorer for us."
The Nitros only have one game next weekend, but it's a big one, taking on Fernie on their rink. They will have four practices this week to fine tune some things and hopefully carry forward the momentum from this commanding win.
Overall, Stuart is happy with where his squad is at this point in the season.
"We’ve played 20 games and we’ve won 14 of them, so I think if you would have told me at the start of the year we’d be second overall right now in the conference and first in our division, I’d take it," he said. "There’s definitely room for improvement, but I like the direction we’re going in."
