The Kimberley Dynamiters have won Games 1 and 2 of the second round of this season's quest for the Teck Cup. These wins mean a lot for the team, particularly its veteran players.
Last year, the Dynamiters were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in a decade, losing the series 4-1 to the Columbia Valley Rockies. Coming from a Teck Cup win the season before, this was devastating to the team, particularly for its retiring 20-year-olds.
They've now advanced to Round 2 after besting the Creston Valley Thunder Cats 4-2, and have now won the first two games of Round 2 against the Columbia Valley Rockies.
Head coach, general manager Derek Stuart said last year they may not have given the Rockies the credit they deserved, and it cost them.
"They’re a heck of a hockey team. I’m surprised they didn’t have more points in the regular season, they’re a very good team," Stuart said. "They’re a legit championship contender in my opinion and I think part of our learning process from last year was taking them more serious and giving them credit, because they are a good hockey team. I’m not sure we did that last year.
"The veterans on our team from last year, they’re giving it everything they’ve got — as is everyone else, but it definitely is a little bit extra motivation because of what happened for those veterans."
Games 1 and 2 were held at the Kimberley Civic Centre, giving the Nitros home-ice advantage, with the stands packed with 954 fans on Friday night and 1012 on Saturday.
Tristan Weill nabbed his first goal of the post season to open the scoring with Nate Tillmanns scoring his third of the playoffs shortly after, both goals coming on the power play.
The second period belonged to the Rockies, with goals from Bryan Kim and Ethan Cerone tying things up heading into the third.
Captain Trey Stephenson capitalized on a power play a minute into the third, before the Rockies bounced back less than 60 seconds later.
Billy Kiray scored his fifth goal of the post season, followed up by another from Jake Briltz. The Rockies managed to snag one more with a minute left in the game, but the Nitros persisted and secured a 5-4 win, with all five of their goals scored on power plays.
It was another close one the following night, however this time it was the Rockies who took the early lead with a power play goal from Kobe Mason. The second period went scoreless, with tough defence and stellar goalkeeping from both teams.
Danik Reeves then hammered one home from deep, capitalizing on a power play early in the first and getting his sixth goal of the playoffs.
It was the Jackson Murphy who got the game-winner, another huge shot, eliciting an even bigger reaction from the crowd and his teammates.
"[Murphy’s] been fantastic, he doesn’t get too much media time or too many points, but he’s one of the best defensemen in our league, in my opinion, when he’s on his game," Stuart said.
The Dynamiters warded off an intense final push from the Rockies and secured a 2-1 win and a 2-0 lead in the series, before heading to Invermere for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday.
"It was a good team effort, everyone did their part and the last three minutes was quite hectic but we kept it together and we got a big win," Murphy said. "It feels really good, all the effort throughout the season and everyone’s working hard, everyone’s doing their part to be the best and everyone’s doing really well. I just did my part and did my best during the game."
Stuart was happy with his teams play, particularly in that they didn't give up after falling behind in Game 2.
"I think one of our bad habits all year is if we don’t score when we get some chances we start to depress a little bit, we start to get a little bit grumpy and start yelling at the refs," he said. "But we just had to reset in the second intermission and just remind them that it was a one-goal game, it wasn’t 5-0 after two, it was 1-0. I think they did a very good job of switching their mentality in between the second and the third.
"I think for us we’re just taking it one game at a time to be honest and it’s definitely better being up 2-0 than tied 1-1, but we’ll see if we learn from last series on Monday night, because we need to come out desperate and we need to want to be up 3-0 more than they want to make it 2-1."
See kimberleybulletin.com later this week for the results from Games 3 and 4.
