After their first win in their playoff series against the Golden Rockets on Tuesday was a little too close for comfort, the Kimberley Dynamiters resolved to make some corrections and although Wednesday’s game started slow, they kicked it into high gear in the second and third and wound up with a 9-2 statement victory.
“I think we just came to play harder,” said Kade Leskosky. “We want to show these guys that we’re a lot better team than them, so we just didn’t like the result yesterday and we didn’t want it to happen again so we came out and gave it our all today.”
READ MORE: After a bad first period, Dynamiters rally for sensational win in first playoff match
Leskosky, a 2003-born forward from Calgary, Alta., was fourth in the KIJHL’s rookie assist leaders for the regular season, with 26. He had a strong game on Wednesday, and though the announcer gave him credit for a hat trick, Leskosky said one of his goals actually should have been attributed to Austin Daniels.
“I think one of the goals should have been Austin Daniels’, it should have been his hat trick,” he said with a laugh. “But, it’s good to get going, we had every line going as well today so it’s good that if we can get everyone scoring it’s just going to create momentum to keep building off of, so it’s really huge to start hot because you can just build off of it.”
That would mean Daniels should have had three goals and two assists that game, but points are less important at this stage — as Leskosky put it, “we just want to keep winning, that’s it.”
Tyler Russell, one of the team’s veterans and an assistant captain, also had a great game on Wednesday, scoring a goal in the second and third periods.
“It was pretty good,” he said. “The guys and I were really not too happy with last night so we came together as a team and decided that we’re not going to let that happen again, hopefully not throughout the whole playoffs, whether it’s Golden or whoever we play next. We really just decided no more of that stuff, time to get serious, let’s get it done.”
Russell acknowledged that it’s a pretty young team this year, with only two 20-year-olds, and lots of rookies, and so first-playoff-game nerves were definitely at play in the previous night’s 3-2 win.
“I think a lot of the guys just don’t realize, that coming from wherever they come from, this league’s a pretty big step,” Russell said. “They might think that ‘oh it’s just Junior B, it’s whatever,’ but it’s a pretty big step, it’s pretty good hockey.”
He added that the new guys are learning that they need to show up and be ready to play their best every single game, even in practice, and that they may have been simply nervous in their first playoff game.
“It’s more fans, bigger capacity with COVID and everything, and I think it was more just trying not to do anything wrong, rather than just going and playing Nitros hockey,” Russell said. “Which compared to tonight, where we had our discussion we just decided, no more crap, and from now on it’s going to be no more nerves, let’s just go play Nitros hockey.”
In addition to Leskosky being named one of the Rookie assist leaders, it’s no surprise, given the season the team had, that there are plenty of other Dynamiter names amongst the final stat highlights from the KIJHL. Christian Mealey, who had a goal and an assist in Wednesday’s game, was the fifth-ranked rookie goal leader with 21.
Cash Regan was ranked third in overall regular season assists with 33. Cam Reid was named the top defenceman in the Eddie Mountain division and Trystan Self the top goalie. Self was number one in the list of win leaders and SP leaders, number three in GAA and second in shutouts.
Derek Stuart was named the top coach in the Eddie Mountain division.
“Obviously it’s nice to be recognized, the coaches vote, so it’s nice to be recognized by your peers, but at the same time the guys are the ones that are in the war, I’m just standing on the bench in the safe spot,” Stuart said.
“They’re the ones going to war every night. We got them to listen to us as a staff and when they listen to what we’re trying to tell them they’re a pretty darn good hockey team, so the credit’s probably to the players because they’re the ones that are out there making me look good.”
The Dynamiters will now head to Golden for games on Friday, Feb. 25 and Saturday, Feb. 26, instilled with confidence and looking to sweep the series.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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