The Dynamiters continue on their post-Christmas hot streak, with two dominant wins over Golden and then a 4-2 victory in their first game against the Grand Forks Border Bruins this year.
READ MORE: Dynamiters shutout Golden 6-0 on the road
“It started really slow, it wasn’t our sharpest game by any means, but as the game wore on we got better and better, and third period was probably our best,” head coach Derek Stuart said.
The game did indeed begin with a slow start, though Cam Reid was able to open up the scoring with a nice goal on the power play, his fourth goal of the season so far.
Grand Forks tied it up and the game was tied heading into the second. Carson Cleland got his first goal of the year early in the second period. Grand Forks capitalized on a power play with a goal towards the end of the second, but the Dynamiters answered back 10 seconds later with a goal from Christian Mealey.
He’d score his second goal of the game and 14th of the season in the third period and was named star of the game.
“I’ve just been playing with more speed and my line mates, we’re all just clicking really well and have really good chemistry between us,” Mealey said after the game. “We’re sharing the puck around and not getting selfish. Kinda finishing, not getting greedy with the puck and getting in front of the net.”
The Nitros kept the pressure high with strong defence and relentless offence through the third and what began as a fairly even start turned into a one-sided conclusion, putting up 43 shots on goal to the Bruins’ 26.
“We make sure we play defence first and let everything else take care of itself, but there was maybe a few too many prime scoring chances for my liking, but Trystan [Self] was good and for the most part we were good defensively.”
After this winning steak, the Dynamiters are now the number one team in the Eddie Mountain Division, one point ahead of the Columbia Valley Rockies.
“They’re still teenagers and they still look at the standings, it’s not a good habit to get into to try and look at the standings, we try to play our game all the time,” Stuart said. “I’ll give Grand Forks credit, they worked extremely hard and they were very hard to play against.”
Their next games are against the Creston Valley Thunder Cats, in Creston on Jan. 15 and at home on Saturday, Jan. 15.
Stuart says in the meantime they’ll work on tightening up a few minor details — starting their games hard, working on limiting deflections, and doing some loose buck battle drills — but overall the team is playing strong hockey.
“Since Christmas we’ve been very, very good and you don’t want to meddle with that too much,” he said. “We will just reinforce a few things, get some flow going and just let the guys practice and get ready for Creston.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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