For the first time since last season’s Game 7 playoff victory to bring the Teck Cup back to Kimberley, the Dynamiters met the Princeton Posse on Sunday, Dec. 3 and took down a hard-fought 6-4 win, battling not just their opponent, but exhaustion.
READ MORE: Kimberley wins Teck Cup in game 7 OT win over Princeton Posse
The Nitros arrived at the Civic Centre about an hour before the 4 p.m. puck drop on Sunday, having just returned from a lengthy roadtrip, which saw their return to Spokane on Friday, Dec. 1 and up to Grand Forks on Saturday Dec. 2.
The Dynamiters took a 3-2 win over the Spokane Braves, just barely getting the best of them after overcoming an incredible performance from their goaltender Andrew Tworkowski, who stopped 46 of 49 shots on net.
“It was one of the best goaltending performances I’ve seen in our league in some time from their goalie,” Dynamiters head coach, general manager Derek Stuart said. “It was fun to get back in the swing of things playing them again.”
The Nitros then headed back into Canada for a game against the Grand Forks Border Bruins, the current number-one team in the Neil Murdoch Division.
The Border Bruins got the better of the Dynamiters, beating them 4-1, with Tristan Weill scoring his team’s only goal. Weill’s dominant season shows no signs of slowing down. After Sunday’s win, where he tacked on two more goals and two more assists, he sits atop the KIJHL’s points standings with a remarkable 49 points in 24 games played, with 25 goals and 24 assists. That’s 11 points ahead of Creston Valley’s Luke Chakrabarti in second place.
Parker Konneke, who grew up next door to Weill in West Kelowna, is making his mark during his first season with the Dynamiters, sitting at fourth in the league’s points standings with 15 goals and 18 assists in 21 games.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted,” he said of the game in Grand Forks, “but we kept our heads up and then came in to today, no matter the circumstances, coming in off the bus like that.
“It was home rink but basically felt like an away game coming off the bus like that, but we still obviously brought everything we had tonight and took down Princeton. They were on an 11-game win streak and we just broke it so it’s pretty good.”
Sunday’s contest got off to a very level start. Princeton’s Kyle Schechtel opened the scoring three minutes into the first and Konneke answered nine seconds later.
The second period is when the Dynamiters began to pull ahead and started putting more shots on goal. Princeton’s goalie Nathan Preston made a lot of great saves and only let one goal in from Weill during a power play.
The game started getting a lot chippier at this point as well, with the Dynamiters showing a great deal of discipline and managing to stay out of trouble for the most part, one fight aside. The Posse took six penalties to the Dynamiters’ two.
“I think there was some bad blood or some stuff unresolved from last year that the Princeton guys were sure mad about, especially the returning players, because obviously guys on our team have rings on their finger and they don’t,” Konneke said after the game. “There can only be one winner, so that’s how it goes, but I’m sure it’ll be a good rivalry because there’s a good chance we’ll meet them in playoffs this year.”
READ MORE: Kimberley to host 2024 BC Hockey Junior A Championships
Stuart echoed this saying both teams firmly established that rivalry last year in April.
“I think that might have helped our guys get up for this game a bit more as well,” he said, “but they’re a fantastic hockey team and we played really good today.”
Kade Leskosky scored less than a minute into the third on a power play carried over from Curtis Gould’s five minute Head Contact penalty called at 20 minutes in the second.
The rest of game saw a lot of action, with Leskosky scoring his second and Weill scoring his second before Princeton’s Vinay Junek snagged one back. Nate Murdoch scored on Princeton’s empty net, sealing the deal, but Princeton didn’t give up and Jonathan Ward scored with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.
“I’m very proud of the guys tonight,” Stuart said. “I mean Princeton was in the same boat, this was their third game in less than 48 hours as well, but I really liked how we played today.
“We were in control of our emotions. It probably helped to have a couple guys out who are having trouble controlling themselves right now, so it was really, really good to see us play that well, being our third game in less than 48 hours and all that travel we’ve had to do.”
Konneke said he thinks taking unnecessary penalties resulted in their loss to Grand Forks.
“As a group we just bought in all together and said it doesn’t matter if a guy punches you in the face, or slashes you in the back of the leg, we’re just going to stay disciplined and not put our team down at all,” he said. “And as long as they keep going stupid stuff like that, we’re going to get the power play and our power play has been pretty good, so we’re going to take advantage of that.”
There is a lot of great action in store for the rest of December, including three straight games at home. The Dynamiters will welcome Spokane on Friday, Dec. 8, Creston Valley on Saturday, Dec. 9 and Fernie on Dec. 12. They then have a game in Golden on Dec. 15 before their break. They will then return for the annual Christmas Classic where they’ll play the Fernie Ghostriders at home on Friday, Dec. 29 and in Fernie on Saturday, Dec 30.
“It’s going to be my first Christmas Classic, but from the videos and stuff guys have said from last year, it sounds like a pretty fun time,” Konneke said. “I’m looking forward to it after the Christmas break for sure.”
READ MORE: Dynamiters dominate sold-out Christmas Classic with two wins over rivals Fernie