It was a busy weekend for the Kimberley Dynamiters as they looked to keep their seven-game win streak rolling, with games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The action kicked off on Friday with their only home game of the weekend, taking on the Quesnel River Rush for the first time this season.
The River Rush is a new team to the KIJHL this year, having moved to Quesnel from Armstrong, where they had played as the North Okanagan Knights since the 2009-10 season.
There were numerous storylines at play on Friday night, with several former Dynamiters on the Quesnel roster. Kimberley native Evan Murray was traded to the River Rush back in October, and the teams traded goalies in November, with the Dynamiters acquiring Josh Hager through a trade for Kyan Gray and defenceman Jimmy Proulx.
Hager had an exceptionally memorable debut in his first game with the Nitros, shutting out the Creston Valley Thunder Cats and scoring on their empty net.
The Nitros got off to an early lead on Friday night with goals from Lukas Carlson and Remy Spooner. Luke Davies nabbed his twentieth goal of the season early in the second, giving the Dynamiters what looked to be an insurmountable lead, especially looking at the heavily one-sided shot clock.
However, the River Rush made a late game push as the Dynamiters let their foot slip off the gas pedal. Cash Anderson scored his fifteenth goal of the season on a power play, and Ian George scored again with a minute and a half remaining in the second.
Anderson would then score his second goal of the game, once again on a power play resulting from an ill-timed Nitros penalty.
With each goal the River Rush bench chanted their former goaltender's name, waging mental warfare in addition to their on-ice battle.
The Dynamiters continued to pepper their former goalie, whose exceptional performance kept the River Rush in the game. At the end of the the third the shot clock read 50-16 for the Nitros. After a thrilling five minutes of three-on-three overtime went without a goal, the game would be decided in a shootout.
Neither team's first shooters found the back of the net. Isaiah Bagri netted his, as did Dynamiters captain Trey Stephenson, and then assistant captain Tristan Weill made his. Hager, who withstood three periods of heckling from his former bench, would ultimately win the game, stopping the shot of Lynden Donald-Gorman in fine form.
Dynamiters head coach and general manager Derek Stuart was happy with the result, if not with his team's overall play throughout the game. He also touched on the recent trades in the post game interview, which included the rather shocking trade of forward Riley Langille, who along with goalie Drew Cadenhead were traded to the 100 Mile House Wranglers in exchange for future considerations.
"I think for us, we can't just play 20 minutes,” Stuart said. “I thought the third period was a little bit better. The first was good, really good, the second was terrible and the third was maybe average.
“There's not too many times I trade a guy because he's not good enough to play here. Evan Murray's more than good enough to play here. And you saw it tonight Kyan Gray is a fantastic goaltender. There's different reasons for guys when they leave here most times, it's not because they're not good enough. and Evan and Kyan are both great players.
"Unfortunately, we had eight 20-year-olds and we're only allowed to keep seven. Justin Sommer has been cleared and, we feel that he's more valuable to our team than Riley's been, especially lately, so that was the reasoning behind that."
With the playoffs looming, Stuart wants to see more from his top end, including Tristan Weill, who was Friday's Player of the Game.
"I thought Tristan was our best forward for sure in terms of work ethic, battling, finishing checks, he deserved to be the hero as the shootout winner," Stuart said. "Our top six needs to start contributing five on five on the on the score sheet.
“It’s been far too many games in a row where we've only got maybe two goals in the last six games, I believe, from our top six at even strength. Luckily our bottom six and our defensemen are chipping in offensively or we'd be in a little bit of trouble right now."
Weill had 38 goals and 33 assists for 71 points in his 36 games he played last season, having missed a good stretch of the year due to injury and illness. He currently has 14 goals and 18 assists through 34 games so far this year.
"I think I've been working pretty hard, playing hard out there, but I can definitely improve on the production rate," he said. "But I'm not really too worried about it because I think that's eight [wins in a row] now and the team’s rolling, we’re winning so it doesn't matter."
Captain Trey Stephenson is back from injury and has been a strong force on the ice in all his games since then, including his goal in the shootout to lead his team to victory. He weighed in on the win and the Langille trade post-game on Friday.
“Yeah, feels good. We're finding ways to win regardless of the outcome of the game, it seems like,” Stephenson said. “We dominated the first period, but they gave it to us pretty evenly after that, but we’re a resilient group and we found a way to win, so it feels good.
"It sucks, you know, [Riley] is one of my best friends and he's a huge part of our locker room. We had too many 20-year-olds, so it's a part of the game, it's the worst part of the game, we all miss him, but you just kind of have to move forward and it was a move he had to make unfortunately.
"Stu knows what he's doing with our team and we all trust him. It’s just about us going out and doing our jobs and executing."
The Nitros win streak came to an end the following evening with a 5-2 loss against the Columbia Valley Rockies, but they bounced back with a 7-2 win against the Golden Rockets on Sunday afternoon.
The Nitros still hold the number one spot in the Eddie Mountain Division with 49 points, eight clear of the Rockies and 11 clear of the Fernie Ghostriders, who have six games in hand.
The Dynamiters are in a tie with the Revelstoke Grizzlies in the overall KIJHL standings, one point ahead of the Princeton Posse.
They next play in Creston on Friday, Jan. 10 and are back at the Civic Centre on Friday, Jan. 17 when they welcome the Chase Heat.