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Posted 2010-09-02 by Webmaster. - Nitros kick off exhibition play with a bang
Nitros lose a tough one
Team Smith - Captain Micheal Smith, Brennan Foreman, Mike Nelson, Brett Richards, Taylor McDowell, J.T. Ward, Josh Prasad, Brett Luker, Riley Stishenko, Brennan Romanovitch and Jared Marchi celebrate the Nitro Cup victory
Team Smith Takes Nitro Cup
The Kimberley Dynamiters spent New Years Eve Day in a very competative way, the Nitros Cup. The Nitros Cup entails a five stage competition including a skating race, 2 on 2 puck battle, 2 - 0 scoring battle, 4 on 4 game and 3 on 3 game.
Team Smith defeated Team Caldwell by a score of 6 - 4. Team Smith Captain Micheal Smith credits his team mates for the victory coming from behind to defeat a very tough Team Caldwell.
Nitros lose a tough one to the Ghostriders
A couple of first-period bad luck breakdowns wound up being the difference last night for the Kimberley Dynamiters.
The visiting Fernie Ghostriders held a 3-1 lead after the first period before adding an empty-netter for the 4-1 win.
Kimberley head coach Kevin MacKay was happy with his club's resolve, taking the play to one of the best teams in the KIJHL. He'd just like to see a bit more finish.
"When we get the opportunity, we've got to score a little more. I think that's the whole thing. I think it's coming. We got pucks to the net and we were going hard to the net," he said. "We're close. It's just a matter of, if we get the break on that first one, it's a whole different ball game."
That first one was a shorthanded goal off the stick of Fernie captain Tim Crawley, who scored on a turnover deep in the Kimberley zone.
Evan Burgess wired a shot from the top of the left circle to make it 2-0 at 11:08.
A little over a minute later, Fernie goalie Jason Greenwell made a fine save sliding across-crease to rob Brennan Foreman of a one-timer goal on the power play.
James Werner made it 3-0 with a powerplay tip at 14:38.
MacKay said a couple of bad bounces were the deciding factor last night.
"The first goal, the puck bounced over our defenceman's stick and they got the break on it. Then the third goal went off a stick in front, and those are two goals that hurt us. (So did) our inability to score some goals when we had some chances. I thought the guys competed quite hard."
Matt Foster got the Nitros on the board before the end of the first, when he converted on a cross-ice powerplay pass from Brennan Romanovitch.
Kimberley captain Corey Allen got into the referee's bad book, getting a 10-minute misconduct midway through the game after Jeremy Kelso failed to goad Zach Fridella into a fight and was given two for roughing.
"We lose our focus with the stripes. We've got to fight through that. I thought we had turned a corner there for a while, but then it kind of came back at us," said MacKay. "We lost our focus, but I've got to give credit to the guys: we regrouped and took off after that."
Greenwell made 28 saves for the win, while Tory Caldwell stopped 30 shots for Kimberley.
The game was relatively short on shenanigans, given the rivalry between the clubs and the fact they've played twice this week and are set to face off over the next two Saturdays.
The first period did end in a spirited scrum, with Ryan Georgopoulos not afraid to get his nose into it.
That nose happened to be covered by a shield-visor combo as the 18-year-old defenceman was skating in his first game back from a broken jaw suffered inflicted by Fridella in mid-November.
"For being out almost six weeks, I thought he played quite well," said MacKay. "I think his conditioning is a little bit off still. He didn't have the speed he usually does, but he was making good choices. I thought he was pretty strong on the back end for us."
Georgopoulos's younger brother Derek also made his second appearance for the Nitros, having also played in Monday night's 5-2 loss in Fernie.
The forward is returning to the major midget Kootenay Ice today, and is one of several affiliate players the Nitros are using.
"It's good carrot for those guys to get the opportunity to come in here and get some shifts," said MacKay. "It would have been nice to give him more shifts, but every time his unit came up we were either going on the power play or killing a penalty. In the third period, we had the flow going."
The Dynamiters are back in action this Saturday in — you guessed it — Fernie. Before then, MacKay said they will work on their offensive touch, and breaking out of their own end.
"When we turned the puck over in our own zone, we paid the price tonight. They are very opportunistic so we'll work on getting the puck out a little quicker and getting more shots to the net."
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