The Kimberley Dynamiters had a strong weekend with two wins on home ice, beating the Kelowna Chiefs 3-1 with a hat trick from Kade Leskosky and shutting out the Creston Valley Thunder Cats 5-0 on Saturday. They’ve now won their last three games in a row.
Leskosky’s hat trick, his first of this season but certainly not his first ever with the Nitros, brings his tally up to a solid eight goals and 11 total points in 13 games played thus far this season. He was all smiles after the game when he answered a few questions for the Bulletin.
“Feels really good to get a big win like that at home,” he said. “It was awesome, we’ve got the best fans in the league, it was pretty cool to see some hats come down there. My teammates gave me some pretty nice passes, so that felt awesome.”
One of the things head coach Derek Stuart has been working with his team on recently is capitalzing on on scoring opportunities, and despite a 3-1 win, Leskosky thinks they likely could have scored several more goals on Friday night.
“There were quite a few chances,” he said. “We’ve been harping on each other a little bit about that, just to bear down a little more, but it’s nice to get three. Our team is big on the fact that if we can get three goals, we can win a game, because we’re pretty confident in our defence, we can hold them to three goals.”
Stuart agreed, but added that when you only give up one goal, you only need two to get the job done, and Leskosky got three by himself, and the rest of the team did their part in keeping Kelowna from scoring more than one.
“The guys did a really good job the last three games of sticking to our systems and I think they’re finally starting to grasp what we want them to do when we don’t have the puck and how to get it back,” Stuart said. “We’re starting to see some of those things come through in our games.”
Friday saw the Dynamiters play against former teammate Matt Saretsky, a favourite of the players and fans alike for his time with the team, who was traded to the Kelowna Chiefs in October.
READ MORE: Dynamiters trade Matt Saretsky to Kelowna Chiefs for future considerations
“I gave him a hug after the game there, he was one of my really good buddies on our team,” Leskosky said. “It was weird to see him in another jersey, but at the same time it was nice to see him out there and I think he’s enjoying it there so it’s good to see.”
The chemistry and bonds formed by last year’s championship-winning team is going to be hard to beat, but Leskosky said this season’s squad is coming together nicely.
“We’ve got a great group, I love the boys in our locker room and it’s fun every day being here,” he said. “I think we’ve got something special in there and I’m excited to finish off this season.”
READ MORE: Overtime goal secures two-win weekend to wrap Dynamiters’ regular season
Saturday’s 5-0 win over Creston saw a few of the Dynamiters’ star players continue to excel, with a hat trick for Parker Konneke and a goal each for Leskosky and Tristan Weill, plus a shutout for Kimberley goaltender Matt Fleet.
“I think those three guys are definitely top offensive producers in our league,” Stuart said. “I know we have some secondary scoring that needs to start showing up, but we’re confident with the guys and the main thing for us again is that they’re playing the right way, so if we play the right way I don’t think we’ll need too many goals to get wins.”
Weill, who has 12 goals and 16 assists for a 2.0 points per game average, was named Player of the Month for October.
The Dynamiters are now, with 20 points, sitting in second place in the Eddie Mountain Division standings behind the Columbia Valley Rockies, who have three more points, but two more games played.
“I check [the standings] once in a while, I’m not going to lie, but I’m not concerned with where we’re sitting right now,” Stuart said. “With us we’re trying to take one game at a time here and obviously Columbia Valley and Fernie are having great starts as well so I’m sure that will continue throughout the season.”
The Nitros next game is at home against the Golden Rockets, who currently are sitting at the bottom of the divisional standings, on Tuesday, Nov. 7. They then hit the road on Friday to take on the Rockies before welcoming Golden on Saturday.
Stuart said that with both practices this week falling on days right before games, they won’t have time to work on anything substantial, but if they continue to play without the puck the way they did this past weekend, they will be tough to beat, adding discipline will be a key factor in limiting their opponents’ scoring chances.