The Kimberley Dynamiters won both their games over the weekend, but both games were tight ones.
On Friday, January 10, the Nitros were at the Eddie Mountain Arena in Invermere to take on the Columiba Valley Rockies. Kimberley jumped out to big lead early, scoring four unanswered goals in the first period. The scoring came from Jed Butler, Dan Graber, Carter Spring and Mitch Fargey.
But then Invermere scored two late in the second, making it a game. Cam Russell extended the Dynamiters lead to 5 - 2 early in the third, but Columbia Valley kept fighting with two more goals, making the final score 5 - 4 for Kimberley.
Carter Spring was named the Away Star.
General Manager and Head Coach Derek Stuart says the four goal first period was perhaps the Nitro’s quickest start of the season, and then it was simply a case of Columbia Valley playing as well as they could.
On Saturday, it took double overtime for the Dynamiters to defeat the Golden Rockets at the Civic Centre in Kimberley.
Golden opened the scoring at 10:45 of the first, and Kimberley’s Ryan Piva tied the game two minutes later. But Golden would score again before the end of the period (Chase Fischer) to lead 2 - 1.
Mitch Fargey evened the game in the third.
It was Brock Palmer who notched the winning goal early in the second overtime period, with assists from Cam Reid and Ryan Piva.
The goal was another milestone for Palmer, who tied the record as the Dynamiter KIJHL all time point scorer with 214. He is tied with Jared Marchi for the record. Palmer currently has 75 points on the season.
Stuart says he was pleased with his team this weekend.
“They were both really good games against good opponents,” he said. “We had to earn every point. To me, Golden does not play like a fifth place team. Anytime at this time of year, you get a win, the score is irrelevant. Our players had to play hard.”
With 37 games played, Kimberley continues to lead the Kootenay Conference and the Eddie Mountain Division with 64 points, well ahead of the second place Fernie Ghostriders, who have 52 points.
The Dynamiters are on the road the majority of the rest of January, p0laying Nelson and Beaver Valley next weekend, a game against Fernie at home on the 21st, then over to Fernie and Creston and January 24 and 25, then back home against Creston on January 31.
“We’ve got a real tough stretch coming,” Stuart said. “We’ve got Nelson and Beaver Valley, then a home and home against Fernie.
