Heading into this past weekend, with games on home ice against against two of the lower-standing teams in the KIJHL, the Kimberley Dynamiters were looking to get two wins. They achieved this, but they would have liked to attain those wins in a more resounding fashion.
Friday's game against the Chase Heat, who are currently sitting in 20th of the league's 21 teams, wound up being decided by a shootout, with Kimberley managing to come away with a 5-4 win.
Saturday's game against Nelson, who are in sixteenth place in the league, saw the Dynamiters blow a 4-1 lead, with the Leafs scoring four unanswered goals. Again, the Nitros were able to squeak out the win, with a goal from Nate Tillmanns to tie things back up and the game-winner from Danik Reeves with less than two minutes remaining, but it was a little too close for comfort.
Head coach, general manager Derek Stuart said he believed the postponed game against Creston on Jan. 10 may have been partially to blame, as it meant the team had 12 days off between games.
"Last night it was pretty ugly, today it was a little bit less ugly," he said.
"I just told them it was our own fault," he added, when asked what he told his players after Nelson tied things back up in the second period.
"We took a very stupid penalty when we already shorthanded that put us down 4-3 and then a very lazy defensive mishap in front of our net that left our guy wide open. It was our own fault that the score was 4-4 after 40. I am proud of the guys for not giving up and going all the way to the end, but we gave up a lot of goals to two teams we shouldn’t have given up a lot of goals to this weekend."
On Friday, the Chase Heat took the lead late in the first period, and made it 2-0 after a shorthanded goal early in the second. Reeves and Luke Davies would both score on power plays, tying things back up, and goals from Remy Spooner and Tyler Lindal gave them a two-goal cushion.
The Heat bounced back with goals from Jack Smith and Lochlan Stefanishyn and after a scoreless overtime period, the Dynamiters secured their win in the shootout.
Nelson opened the scoring on Saturday night, but the Nitros soon took control of the game. Davies scored his 24th goal of the season on a power play, followed soon after by a goal from Nolan Kelly.
"Nolan’s been great since he came back, he missed about a month or so with that face injury after getting a puck to the face," Stuart said. "He’s still getting back into game shape, but his efforts have been outstanding and he’s contributed a lot since he’s been back."
Tristan Weill nabbed his fifteenth goal of the season, making good on a breakaway. Nathan Laforge then netted a cheeky goal early in the second, giving the Dynamiters what looked to be a comfortable lead.
The Nelson Leafs bounced back with an onslaught of goals coming from Brendon Hall, Dayden Collier and Kieran Christianson in the second period, and Leighton Partington midway through the third.
Fortunately the squad was able to dig deep and tighten things back up, allowing Tillmanns to tie things back up and Reeves to get the game winner; his thirteenth goal of the season thus far.
"It was a big one and it was really exciting to get, so to get that win was pretty good," Reeves said. "I went up to the D and when I got on net I just crashed the net and got lucky with the shot there."
Stuart said Reeves is "very, very skilled" and liked that he was more involved in Saturday's game than the previous night's.
"I think when he gets involved and is around the puck, good things happen usually," he said.
These wins bumped the Dynamiters up to 53 total points, putting them behind just the Princeton Posse and the Revelstoke Grizzlies who are in a tie for first in the league with 54 points each.
"We banked the points, which is important, but I didn’t like the way we played, for the most part, over the weekend," Stuart said. "I think it would have been pretty ugly the other way if we were playing two top-end teams this weekend.
"We’ve talked about winning our division and that’s as far as we’ve talked about. We’re in the driver’s seat and we control our own destiny in terms of winning our division. I think we need to prepare properly, no matter who our opponent is. We need to prepare like we’re playing Fernie or Revelstoke or Princeton every night."
The Dynamiters are indeed on top of the Eddie Mountain Division, seven points clear of the Fernie Ghostriders, but Fernie has played three less games. The Dynamiters have seven regular season games left before the playoffs will begin.
"I think [the standings] matter a lot to us as a group. Obviously we want to be as high up as we can going into playoffs, just making sure we’re going our best every day and putting in the work to do that," said Reeves, adding he'd like to see more "buy in as a group" from the team heading into the last stretch of the season.
"The team’s a team and I think we’re forming pretty well here and getting closer and it’s definitely a great squad going into the playoffs."
Kimberley's next game is in Fernie on Friday, Jan. 24. Their next home game is on Friday, Feb. 7 against Columbia Valley.
