The Dynamiters knocked out the Golden Rockets in emphatic fashion with a 4-0 game five win in front of a hometown crowd of over 1100 fans. They have advanced to the Eddie Mountain Conference finals where they will take on their historic rivals, the Fernie Ghostriders.
After taking a 3-1 lead in the series with two wins on the road, the Nitros had a lot of confidence coming into game five on their home ice and despite a slow start with a scoreless first period, they played some of their best hockey and came away with a shutout win.
Kade Leskosky’s recent hot streak continued, scoring the first of the game late in the second, followed up by goals from Regan and Kostiuk in the third, with Regan scoring again on an empty net as fans chanted, “warm up the bus.”
“That was our best game of the series for sure and game four was our second-best game,” said head coach, general manager Derek Stuart. “So I think that we’re getting better and better, but that was our definitely our best game of the series.”
Since Trystan Self’s injury, goaltender Matt Fleet has continued to step up and put his team in a position to win games and his 29-save shutout was a strong testament to that.
READ MORE: Overtime goal secures two-win weekend to wrap Dynamiters regular season
“When Selfie went down it was obviously tough to see and I’m hoping he’s back very soon, but I feel like I’ve stepped into the role just fine and I feel like I did a good job,” Fleet said.
“I feel like I played really well for the last little bit and just trying to go out there and give the boys a chance to win every night and just doing my job and doing what I can between the pipes for them and we’ve got a great hockey team in front of us.”
“It’s huge to have both goalies rolling like that,” added team captain Jayden Kostiuk. “Fleet stood on his head all series and it was great to see.”
Kostiuk himself has also had a strong showing throughout the playoffs. His goal midway through the third period was his fourth of the post season thus far.
READ MORE: Dynamiters name Jayden Kostiuk new team captain
“It was awesome, lots of fun, the fans were into it, it was great,” he said of Saturday’s win. “We know how we’ve got to play our game each and every night and as long as we do that, we’ll probably like our outcome more times than not.”
Golden proved to be a tough opponent, with every game other than game four being decided by just one goal.
“I think we just wore them down eventually,” Stuart said. “Their top four D played a lot of minutes and so did their top six forwards and and I think over the course of the five games we eventually wore them down, I think it was evident tonight.”
While Kimberley was busy finishing off Golden on Friday, Fernie was battling against regular season division leaders Columbia Valley. They would go on to lose that game 6-4 and close out the series the next day in game six with a win and will take on the Dynamiters in the Eddie Mountain Division finals.
At the time of interviewing, the Nitros weren’t sure who would come out on top, however, but to them it didn’t matter.
“We’re just worried about ourselves,” Kostiuk said. “Sticking to our game and whoever it is we’re ready for them.”
Round two against the Ghostriders kicks off with home games on Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March. 4.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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