This past weekend was a bit of a mixed bag for the Kimberley Dynamiters, who came away with a commanding 5-3 win over the Nelson Leafs on Friday, but wound up with a 3-2 loss against Beaver Valley due to some unforced errors on Saturday, Nov. 27.
The Dynamiters came out strong with some early goals against the Leafs, building solid momentum that would carry them through the game. Nelson’s Rhett Hamilton nearly tied the game up at 4-4 in the third period, but after he missed on that opportunity, his team wasn’t able to recover and gave up several penalties and another goal for a final score of 5-3.
“It’s a special teams team when you play the Leafs, so we were prepared for that and expected it and our power play came through with three power-play goals, so five-on-five I thought we carried the play,” head coach, general manager Derek Stuart said. “I believe all three of their goals were on the power play as well. I think five-on-five I was very happy with how we played on Friday.
Momentum is a hard thing to quantify and isn’t necessarily something that a team can work on between games.
“I think it just kind of happens,” Stuart said. “You get up two goals and I think any team would be more confident and playing better, but I think the guys had a fantastic start in Nelson, we came out firing and put pucks on net and got two nice goals and did a really good job, that was probably our best start on the road all season.”
Nitros goalie Trystan Self was a big help putting the team in the position to win, with 28 saves throughout the game. An undeniable star of the game was Cash Regan who got himself a hat trick.
“Cash was the best player on the ice in my mind on Friday. When he gets a scoring chance and when he’s on his game he’s very deadly and it’s very good to see him finally starting to get some goals,” Stuart said.
Saturday’s game was another a “special-teams game,” Stuart explained. Beaver Valley got two short-handed breakaway goals, due to unforced turnovers by the Dynamiters power play players.
“I just thought we gave that game to them to be honest with you,” he said. “I thought five-on-five we were all over them and unfortunately our power play didn’t score and gave up two shorthanded breakaways that they capitalized on both of them.”
The Dynamiters went into Friday’s game with momentum on their side, but Saturday’s game the opposite was the case.
They were however able to bounce back and score two goals of their own, but as they were down 3-2 in the third, they took a major penalty and then a “very selfish” penalty after the whistle, putting them on the penalty kill for the last seven minutes of the game.
“I think stuff like that is really shooting ourselves in the foot and making some really uncharacteristically bad decisions with the puck and undisciplined decisions too.
Stuart isn’t overly concerned with the mistakes and undisciplined errors from the Beaver Valley game, as it was uncharacteristic of his team and so there wasn’t much to pick out and work on for their next game, which is on Tuesday, Nov. 30 at home against Columbia Valley.
The Dynamiters are focusing on using their speed and trying again to have a good start to the game.
“They’re a very good team and very well structured,” Stuart said. “We’ve won two of the four games and they’ve won two, so we definitely need to make sure that we’re bringing our A-game tomorrow night, especially as they’re the team that’s ahead of us right now so I don’t think there will be any problem motivation wise but we’re definitely focusing on having a good start and playing with some team speed.”