The Kimberley Dynamiters had two games on home ice this past weekend and came away with two wins.
First up, they welcomed their historic rivals the Fernie Ghostriders. Especially given how rowdy Sunday's matinee game would prove to be, Dynamiters head coach Derek Stuart was surprised at the lack of physicality in the game on Friday, Sept. 27, which would ultimately be won in a shootout and a final score of 5-4 for the Nitros.
"That might have been the least physical Fernie-versus-Kimberley game I’ve ever seen in my life, to be honest with you," Stuart said. There was very little physicality, I thought we took the foot off the pedal in the third, we might have thought it was over when it was 4-2, but we deserved the win and I’m glad the two points. Not a bad start when we’ve had a lot of stuff to work on and a lot of room for improvement, but we’re 3-1, so we’ll take it right now."
Fernie's Taylor Haggerty opened the scoring just under a minute and a half into the first period of the game, commencing a hard-fought back and forth contest. New signing this season Luke Davies got his first goal with the Dynamiters in the first and got his second early in the second period.
The Nitros' other two goals would come from Hayden Selin and Nolan Kelly. The Ghostriders tied things up late in the third period and the game was decided in a shootout, with Luke Davies scoring the winning goal, handily earning the distinction of player of the game.
Friday's game only saw a total of seven penalties, but that would not be the case on Sunday. The Dynamiters got off to a hot start and took a solid early lead and by the end of the first period they led 3-0 and 14 total penalties had been dished out to the two teams.
100 Mile House chipped away at the Nitros' lead, with two goals early in the second. Temperatures flared throughout the period, with Tyler Lindal getting sent to the box for fighting 13 minutes in and another huge brawl breaking out right at the end of the period.
"They tried to intimidate us physically and they have a lot of tough talkers but they found out quickly we aren’t going to be intimidated," Stuart said. "To me, the turning point was when one of our best defencemen beat the crap out of their fourth-line supposed tough guy. They suddenly became very quiet after that fight.
"We do want them to definitely stick up for themselves and each other, " he added. "The term we like to use here is 'no unnecessary stuff.' We don’t want to start unnecessary scrums or take unnecessary penalties and we took too many unnecessary penalties today, we’re just fortunate enough that they did as well."
When asked if he was expecting that level of compete and such a contentious match from 100 Mile House, Stuart said he was, but his players may not have been.
"I’m not sure the players were expecting it," he said. "It’s something we’ve got to talk about, how when one of the better teams in the league for the last ten years, those teams bring their effort every night. I thought was answered the bell though very well."
Danik Reeves tacked on an insurance goal in the second, and the Wranglers answered back in the third. They'd pull their goalie late in the third, allowing Billy Kiray to pot an empty netter and secure a 5-3 win.
Their success was thanks in large part to the efforts of goaltender Kyan Gray, one of the team's two new goalies, who faced 32 shots from the Wranglers in his first game with the Dynamiters.
"It was definitely an interesting game, for sure," Gray said post-game. "With all the penalties and fights and everything like that, especially for me I just try to keep myself calm and focused on playing between the whistles.
"100 Mile had a great game today and really brought it to us, but it was really just playing confident and staying calm the entire time and not letting all the things going on around me effect how my game was and how I played."
Gray acknowledged it's unusual for a team to head into a season with two new goalies on the roster, but said it has its advantages as well.
"Right now it’s awesome, the guys are great, welcoming both me and Marc to the team. Bringing in both goalies really fuels that competition between the two goalies, with who’s going and who’s not going and who’s going to get the next game?" he said. "For a lot of goalies, we love that and it helps bring out the best in us for sure."
Stuart is happy with both his team's new goaltenders so far.
"It had been a while for him since he played a game, I think he played an exhibition game in the AJHL like three weeks ago, so we were expecting a little bit of rust, but we didn’t see any. His positioning was great, his demeanour was great and I thought he was a big reason we won tonight," Stuart said of Gray's performance.
"They’ve both been good, we’ve got three wins out of four games with Kyan and Marc and they’ve both been very solid. It’s more healthy and it drives them more if they know that the other guy can take their spot and vice versa, so right now we’re just happy that we’ve got two good goaltenders."
Nick Hughes was named Top Defenceman in the KIJHL's Three Stars of the Week for his performance over the weekend.
"The Calgary, Alta., product had two goals and five assists in two games for the Dynamiters. After being held pointless in their 5-4 shootout win over the Ghostriders, Hughes had a massive performance being involved in all their goals in a 5-3 win over the Wranglers. He set up Danik Reeves for the power-play winning goal at 8:05 of the second period. In four games this season, Hughes has three goals and three assists."
The Dynamiters will head west this weekend, with road games against Princeton and Merritt, the latter being the newly-approved expansion club of the KIJHL.
The Nitros will return to home ice on Friday, Oct. 11 to take on the Spokane Braves and will then host the Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Saturday, Oct. 12.
