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Kimberley Dynamiters win the Eddie Mountain Division Championship

Nitros take 6-2 win to finish off series against Columbia Valley 4-2
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The Kimberley Dynamiters have won the Eddie Mountain division championship after taking down their series against Columbia Valley 4-2.

The Kimberley Dynamiters have won the Eddie Mountain division championship and for their sixth-straight season will advance to the Kootenay Conference Finals after they took down the series against the Columbia Valley Rockies four games to two.

It was a hard-fought series against a formidable opponent, with four of the six games being decided by just one goal. After a tough overtime loss at home on Thursday, March 10, Kimberley bounced back with a 6-2 win in Invermere to finish off the series.

“It was definitely a difficult series and Columbia Valley were a very hard opponent so it was good to get it done and not have to deal with the stresses of game seven,” said head coach, general manager Derek Stuart.

After dealing with the first five difficult games, and coming back from an at-home loss, a big factor for the Dynamiters heading in to game six was their mindset.

“I think the guys were ready to finish it off before the game started,” Stuart said. “They were extremely focused and we had another solid start. It wasn’t a fantastic start, but it was more than good enough.”

“We had a little talk about how it important it is that when you have a chance to finish a team off you don’t take it for granted. I guess we technically had three chances but we didn’t want to leave it to game seven, so the guys were very focused and ready to go.”

The team also had to bounce back from the traumatic event of Carter Spring breaking his leg in game two, and the scoring spread on Friday night showed how well the team is working as a unit.

READ MORE: Dynamiters start round two of playoffs with one win, one loss

“Everybody’s chipping in and contributing and it was nice in game six our fourth line got two goals and our third line got a really important goal to make it 3-1 to start the third right at the start,” Stuart said. “So everybody’s contributing and some guys are contributing offensively that don’t normally do so, so it’s good to see.”

Justin Sommer had the first goal of the night with Leskosky making it 2-0 shortly after. The Rockies had the only goal of the second and so it was once again a close game heading into the final period, but the Nitros came out guns blazing with an early goal from Ty Smith, his first of the playoffs, then one each from Austin Daniels and Jack Karpyshyn.

The Rockies would put one more up on the board, but an empty net goal from Tyler Russell would seal the deal.

The win also gave the team some invaluable time off before they start their next series against the Nelson Leafs, a team they don’t have much experience playing this year.

“We feel pretty confident, I mean I think anyone who’s left playing still feels like if they play their own game they can have a chance at success so that’s the way we feel,” Stuart said.

“We haven’t played Nelson very much, we played them three times and I think one of them was in October and the other one was before the Christmas break so we’re not taking too much into our previous matchups against them, but we’ll watch video and get the guys as prepared as we can.”

Some much needed rest over the weekend and hitting practice fresh on Monday night will give the team a good start heading into the next round, and while they’re going to keep just taking it one game at a time, Stuart likes the team’s chances of going all the way this year.

“Before Christmas I was a little sceptical but since Christmas there’s no doubt in my mind we have the guys here to do the job and win the championship,” he said. “But again, I think the other three teams remaining would tell you the same thing too.”

The series against Nelson starts out with two home games on Tuesday, Mar. 15 and Wednesday, Mar. 16 at 7 p.m.



paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin

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