Following two big at-home wins to close out the regular season, the Dynamiters started off strong in the first round of their playoff series against Golden with a win on Friday, but unfortunately followed it up with a loss on Saturday.
“I think the last weekend of the regular season getting both wins against two tough divisional opponents definitely propelled us into playing how we did on Friday,” said head coach, general manager Derek Stuart.
“I think the guys were a little nervous at the start but after the first ten minutes of the first we were in control of the game after that.”
One of the issues contributing to a late-season slump the Dynamiters went through was offensive struggles to score. Friday’s 4-2 win, with goals from Lindal, Kostiuk, Furukawa and McLean demonstrated a marked improvement in that department.
“I think they were just getting to the net, getting some goals off rebounds,” Stuart said. “Our third line had two goals just by simply outworking them and going to the net, so we were getting the right way you need to get them in playoffs.”
Saturday’s game had a lot of good points, but the Nitros let their foot off the gas and wound up losing 3-2 after being up 2-0 halfway through the second.
“I liked everything except for our finish, it was back to our old Achilles’ heel problem of not being able to score,” Stuart said. “We had, I counted, seven point-blank, grade A scoring chances and didn’t score on any of them, so I think just one of those goes in and it’s two nothing.
“I liked everything about our game Saturday, again we held them to two goals in regulation, kept their top two lines off the score sheet in regulation, just couldn’t score on Saturday. That game should have been put away before the third period started and unfortunately we let them hang around and they got the win in overtime.”
The Dynamiters now get two days off before heading to Golden for their next two games against the Rockets.
Stuart praised the KIJHL’s decision to extend each playoff round, after exhaustion and injury plagued his and many other teams last year. Teams now have 12 days to finish each playoff round instead of nine.
Their next games are February 21 and 22 in Golden.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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