After successfully sweeping the series against Golden in the first round of playoffs, the Kimberley Dynamiters opened round two with a close loss against Columbia Valley and then bounced back with a 5-2 win in game two.
Head coach and general manager Derek Stuart said his team did a lot of things right in Friday’s matchup, with the Dynamiters out-shooting the Rockies 27-25 and creating more scoring opportunities, but that it just wasn’t quite enough to get the win.
“We did enough to win, but I would say we barely did enough to win and when you do that sometimes you don’t win,” Stuart said in a Monday interview with the Bulletin. “It was a very defensive game, but I thought our start obviously was not good, our first period was not good and that’s when they got both their goals. So we still did enough to win, just not quite our regular full amount.”
Stuart and some of the players spoke about nerves being a factor in their shaky first game of the previous series, but Stuart feels they have gotten those mostly out of the way by now.
“They’re teenagers and they probably were nervous, which is expected, but CV was probably nervous too, so I don’t think that played a factor in the outcome at all, no.”
Coaching staff has been instilling the importance of getting proper rest and eating properly for months now, in addition to their practice regimen, so Stuart says that when it comes to the mental side of things, the key thing is to simply have the players focus on their next shift.
“They can’t win or lose the series right now on a specific shift, or in a game right now, so we’re just trying to focus on shift by shift and get them to realize that we can’t win everything right now or lose everything right now,” he said.
Both of Columbia Valley’s goals, and Kimberley’s single goal of the night, scored by Austin Daniels, were scored in the first period of the game. Stuart felt his team did a solid job in the third period, which they then carried over into the first period of game two.
The Nitros scored three goals in the first period on Saturday, putting the Rockies on their heels early and then maintaining control of the game.
The Dynamiters’ 5-2 win was unfortunately marred, however, by star player Carter Spring suffering a broken leg and a dislocated ankle on a penalty kill in the first shift of the third period. The league is currently reviewing the incident.
Spring had surgery on Sunday, which went well, but the team is certainly shaken and will feel his absence.
“It was a very scary scene and I know there was players from both teams that were a little shaken up,” Stuart said. “It wasn’t a pretty sight and the guys area definitely going to have to step up and chip in and replace Carter, because he’s a very valuable part of our team.
“Carter is exactly what we want Dynamiters to be on and off the ice. He does everything with a team-first mentality. He had successful surgery yesterday and we are all hoping for a full recovery.”
Losing key players is something this team has already had to deal with, as they lost their captain Ryan Bennett for three months very early into the season.
“It’s unfortunate, but we talked about it yesterday and we got it out of the way and we’re going to get focused for game three tonight,” Stuart said.
Stuart said the focus will be on simplifying their game heading into game three, and knowing that they’ve had success on Columbia Valley ice in the past.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter