Nitro’s lose 3-2 to Kamloops

The Nitros lost their second home game this season, in a close fight with the Kamloops Storm.

I was late to the game, and just late enough as a puck came out of play and hit the wall in the concession area. Catching everyone off guard. And that wasn’t the only thing that caught people off-guard, the referee was bewildering.

At times I wondered who the referee actually was, because Kamloops Storms Daniel Buchanan seemed to be making a lot of the calls, he was especially able to convince the officials where the face-offs should be, which impacted the game later on.

An example of were Buchanan made the call, was getting the linesmen to call the Nitro’s for too many players on the ice. And when Coach Bancks protested the lame call, he was served with a bench minor. This all happened while the Nitros were on the power play. The Storm then had a 4-3 power play, which was killed off, and then the subsequent 5 on 3 was also killed off. Marchi had a beautiful chance while short handed, but missed. Marchi later redeemed himself and scored with 1:50 left in the first to give the Nitro’s a 2-0 lead.

The second period got even crazier. There were no calls made on obvious boarding hits and hits from behind. Makes you wonder why there is fighting? Not really. If there isn’t going to be any punishment for these cheap shots players take matters into their own hands. Which made the Storms Marc Dumont’s hit even that much more frustrating. While yes he did get a lonely 2 minute penalty, Marchi and Buckley came to his aid, because we just lost a player due to a headshot the game before. The KIJHL SERIOUSLY needs to address headshots!

There were many other missed calls, some seemed to be injury causing as well. It was freaking frustrating.

But more to the highlight-reel maker of the game. Jeremy Mousseau. Easily the Nitro’s Player of the Game. It would appear putting on a Kootenay Ice jersey was a boost to Mousseau’s confidence. He stopped 40 out of 43 shots. He made unreal saves, stole goals, and was the reason the Nitro’s did so well against a top team in the league. The Storm had to develop a set play of taking a slap shot on an angle to miss the net and having the puck pop out on the other side of the net. It was the only way to beat Mousseau.

And this is how close the Nitro’s came to tying the game:

And now to pictures of the game: