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Posted 2010-09-02 by Webmaster. - Nitros kick off exhibition play with a bang
Game 4 Tonight
Tonight - February 23rd
Game 4 - Eddie Mountain Div. Semi-Finals
vs.
Kimberley Civic Centre
Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
After an uneven effort, Nitros’ head coach Kevin MacKay told his players they’ll need more than half the team competing to stave off elimination in Game 4 of the Eddie Mountain Division semifinal tonight (7:30 p.m., Civic Centre).
“We have to have everybody involved, and we didn’t have that (Monday),” he said. “Right from the start, we lacked energy, we lacked passion. We lacked a lot of things that shouldn’t be happening this time of year.”
One element that was in particularly short supply early was love from the referee. One way or another, it led to a 3-0 lead for Creston by the end of the first period.
With Brennan Foreman in the box for a borderline elbowing penalty, Colton Grolla fired a point shot that Kane Dawe redirected past Tory Caldwell at 4:32.
A couple of minutes later, a backchecking Thundercat defenceman got careless with his stick and clipped Chad Filatoff in the face. There was no call, and the puck was cleared out of the Creston zone. Travis Ludwar won a race for the biscuit, cut across the net, and made it 2-0.
Creston’s final goal of the period came at 19:01, when Jordan Johnson’s powerplay point shot made it through a crowd.
“The first period was horrendous, and it continued for half the second period,” said MacKay. “They got every break on calls early. When we got the five-minute major (late in the second period), I thought if we could capitalize there we could have really put the pressure on them.
“You know what? No matter how poor the refereeing is, it’s something we have to play through. I don’t think we fought through hard enough.”
Kimberley did score shortly after Colton Grolla was tossed for kneeing Logan Gutfriend.
The Nitros had about a minute of 5-on-3 to start things off, and made it count. Foreman banged in a rebound from the top of the crease at 15:11.
The Nitros weren’t able to build on that, and negated the last 1:21 of the major by taking a penalty of their own.
Despite some close calls in the third period, the Dynamiters couldn’t add to their score. Creston wrapped things up with an empty-netter at 17:51.
“I think if we get one break early that makes it 3-2 and puts the pressure back on them, but again we weren’t paying a price going to the net,” said MacKay. “We were getting shots, but from the outside. We really didn’t get a lot of penetration inside.”
Caldwell was Kimberley’s best player, stopping 30 of 33 shots.
Without stops like the one he made on a penalty kill with four minutes left — getting post to post to stop a one-timer — the score could have been much uglier.
“They got a lot of opportunities to put it away early, and TC made some great saves and kept us in. It’s almost like an expectation from him, that he’s going to do that for us,” said MacKay.
“He makes a huge save, and we didn’t feed off that. There wasn’t a lot of energy.”
At the other end, MacKay would have liked his players to get in Sunny Gill’s vicinity more often.
“Pucks were going to the net but we weren’t getting any follow up, any second presence there. That was frustrating. The rebounds were there if you wanted a goal — all you had to do was get to the net,” he said.
The Dynamiters would be heading to their respective homes with a loss tonight, but MacKay said he hopes they’ll play for themselves and pride.
“It’s going to be a good lesson to learn, and we’ll see what kind of character we have, how hard we battle and compete for that game (tonight),” he said. “Our focus has been one game at a time. We’ll get this one behind us and go forward.”
NOTES — Folks can catch the end of tonight’s Canada-Germany men’s Olympic hockey game (starts 5:30 p.m.) at the Civic Centre... Goaltender Michael Smith and forward Kieran Spice were sent home prior to the playoffs for ‘conduct unbecoming of a Dynamiter.’
KIJHL - Eddie Mountain Division Semi Finals
Best of seven series
Game #1 Friday Feb 19 @ Creston - Creston 5 - Kimberley 3
Game #2 Saturday Feb 20 @ Creston - Creston 2 - Kimberley 1 OT
Game #3 Monday Feb 22 - Kimberley - Creston 4 - Kimberley 1
Game #4 Tuesday Feb 23 - Kimberley Civic Centre
Game #5 Thursday Feb 25 @ Creston - John Bucyk Arena
Game #6 Friday Feb 26 - Kimberley Civic Centre
Game #7 Saturday Feb 27 @ Creston - John Bucyk Arena
All 7:30 PM Start Times
General Admission Tickets go on sale at 6:30 p.m. on Game Day at the Civic Centre Box Office
Adults $9.00Students and Seniors $7.00Child (5-12 yrs old) $6.00Child not in school (with a parent) FREE
Kimberley Pipe Band
The Kimberley Pipeband has had the prestigious honour of being invited to the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo which takes place in late June and early July of this year.
This is a once in a life time trip as it is the 100th Annivrsary of the Royal Canadian Navy.
The band to date is the largest it had ever been with 30 active members. The Pipeband is currently on a Fundraising drive to ensure all members who wish to go can. We are selling raffle tickets on a Arctic Cat Side by Side Quad which will be raffled on March 17th, 2010.
Please help our band get to Halifax.
Look for the 60's Sock Hop to be held April 10, 2010 at the Centennial Hall
Thank you for you support.
Kimberley Pipeband
Open Tickets - Dynamiter Home Games
A reminder to all of you with "Open Tickets" for the 2009 - 2010 Kimberley Dynamiters KIJHL Regular Season home games WILL NOT be accepted for the 2009 - 2010 KIJHL Playoffs.
Official Coachlines of the Kimberley DynamitersPlease click on the Sponsor logos located on each edge of this Home Page to visit our local Nitros supporters
