Tuesday 31 December 2013

KIJHL Power Rankings - December 31

Welcome to the Power Rankings Countdown!

Ten - This does not include the stats of the games played last night (December 30)
Nine - Beaver Valley Nitehawks are tops for the third straight ranking
Eight - Revelstoke Grizzlies are bottom for the second time in a row
Seven - Princeton Posse (which was the bottom team in the December 2 ranking) is the hottest team.
Six - Confused by how the power rankings work, check out the first ever power rankings
Five - Thanks for visiting the blog and sharing posts!
Four - GO!
Three - Nitro's
Two - GO!
One..... 
Happy New Year! And here are the power rankings!

Rank TEAM Offence Defence Special Teams Goaltending Last Week Difference
1 Beaver Valley Nitehawks 4 1 1 3 1 0
2 Kamloops Storm 3 2 3 8 2 0
3 Summerland Steam 7 4 7 4 5 2
4 Osoyoos Coyotes 6 5 6 5 4 0
5 Kelowna Chiefs 5 8 4 7 3 -2
6 Nelson Leafs 2 6 5 17 6 0
7 Creston Valley Thunder Cats 1 14 2 14 7 0
8 Sicamous Eagles 20 3 14 1 8 0
9 Chase Heat 9 13 10 6 9 0
10 100 Mile House Wranglers 14 9 9 11 10 0
11 Kimberley Dynamiters 11 7 8 18 11 0
12 Spokane Braves 17 11 15 2 13 1
13 Fernie Ghostriders 10 10 19 10 12 -1
14 Princeton Posse 12 15 12 16 17 3
15 Castlegar Rebels 8 16 13 19 14 -1
16 North Okanagan Knights 18 12 18 9 16 0
17 Grand Forks Border Bruins 13 19 16 13 15 -2
18 Golden Rockets 16 17 11 20 19 1
19 Columbia Valley Rockies 15 18 20 12 18 -1
20 Revelstoke Grizzlies 19 20 17 15 20 0

Monday 30 December 2013

Highlights of Nitro's 7-3 win over Fernie

Nitro’s take back second in division with 7-3 win over Ghostriders

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After the Dynamiters played an awesome game in Fernie and Logan-Hill prevented them from winning, Logan-Hill was the weakest link this game. He let in two goals on six shots, and was pulled after the first period.

But before we get too much into the game, did the Ghostriders think that wearing LA King style jerseys would make them cup champions? Switch back to your previous away jersey, they looked better.

Campanella and Sibbald opened the scoring. Sibbald, with his speed as usual, took advantage of an opening and buried the puck. And by the end of the first, the Nitro’s were up 2-1, despite being outshot 10-6. Richter left the game injured in the first, most likely when he was hit into the Fernie players bench gate. Those things gotta be more secure! It’s not the first time we have lost a player because of that gate.

Fernie changed their goalie in the second, since a .666% save percentage in a period isn’t all that stellar. However the goalie change didn’t matter, as the Nitro’s Becker scored within three minutes to start the second. Klingspohn and Rosolowsky also potted goals. But there were two other events, Johnston creamed someone from behind. And either out of being a coward or realizing he was done for the game, skated away from the injured player and wouldn’t face up to Martin, who was given a game misconduct for chasing around Johnston. Later, Revie received a bone-rattling check, and from my perspective it was clean. However he was down and out. I will not speculate on the injury or the process that caused it, because as what happened at the game, rumors spread like wildfire, and it is hard to know the truth.

In the third. Well the Nitro’s continued their scoring ways, and the Ghostriders continued their cheap shots. And the coach didn’t like that his players were being caught in the act. For example, both Gray and Thompson fell to the ice, and Thompson tried chopping Gray’s’ head off with his stick. Later Robertson retaliated to a hit and was called for hitting from behind (the second time the Ghostriders did this in the game, for the record) and was ejected. The coach lost it, not like the Grand Forks coach, but he lost it and was kicked out of the game.

After all was said and done, the Nitro’s won 7-3.

The Bulletin/Townsman reporter Trevor Crowly also summed it up nicely with his tweet:


The Nitro’s Player of the Game was Perpelitz. He skated seamlessly through the Fernie defense, delivered solid checks, scored a power play goal, and assisted on another. He’s skating with a lot of confidence.

Also a shout out to the mini-Nitro’s that played during the first intermission. too cute!

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Sunday 29 December 2013

Nitro’s lose 4-3 thriller to Ghostriders

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The tiniest arena I have been in was full to capacity, 1147 people showed up, that’s 25% the population of Fernie.The Fire Marshall wasn’t far off when he estimated that there was 1140 people there.

One of the security guards said that it was the smallest arena in the KIJHL because when the arena was designed they forgot to include the concession/entrance area and also the Zamboni area. I can’t even begin to explain how compact the arena was, and unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out. But in the penalty box, there was only room for one, maybe two players. The players bench was two players deep. It was just congested.

The Nitro’s fan section got booed early on in the game when they went wild when the team came on the ice. Even singing “O Canada” was difficult in the arena as the girl singing had to find the perfect spot where there wasn’t feedback, talk about increasing anxiety.

The play started fast and furious and the Ghostriders couldn’t keep up: Pagura’s slapshot knocked sticks out of hands, Campanella single-handedly skated through four defenders to get a chance on net, Becker stole the puck several times, Perpelitz undressed Ghostriders while in the defensive end and Odelein left the game injured. Everything was going great, we even got a powerplay! But that’s when Fernie scored, a shorty to take the lead and the capacity crowd erupted. Buckley eventually batted in a rebound to time the game before the end of the first.

In the second period, Fernie jumped ahead to a lead, scoring two goals in the first five minutes. Nitro’s cut the lead in half about a minute later. Butt what was ironic about this period was there were two obvious run ins at the goalies, however, the attacking team was never penalized, just the defending team. And while it may have been true the attacking player was taken down before ramming the goalie, I am sure the attacking player could have done more than just barrel into the goalie. Atleast it wasn’t a Yakupov incident. In this period, Logan-Hill had to spread his wings to fly like a phoenix, and covered post to post with his pads. Which for those wondering, his wing span would have to be about 72 inches or about 183 centimeters, to cover post to post. But with his wingspan, I noted a habit of his where he knocked the net of during Nitr’s rushes.

In the third, Burgess went all “Michal Plutnar” on Buckley, just without pushing the referee, and no penalty was called. I was standing beside someone who said that “Bond, James Bond, always wins and he will score” of course he was referring to Kurtis Bond of the Ghostriders, and of course moments later Bond scored. The fans then started chanting “Warm Up the Bus” with the Riders up 4-2, which the bus driver I was beside jokingly said it was too early to do that. But about 50 seconds later, the Nitro’s scored to be down 4-3. The rest of the period was about crowd control, which was unfortunate. Those of us standing by the Nitro’s entrance ended up being barricaded in, to prevent incidents. – which I should note, this doesn’t happen in Kimberley. As much as I kept hearing that Fernie fans don’t get upset while in Kimberley, it is noticeable that we don’t have to barricade the away team to prevent our fans from getting to them. So….. just pointing that out.

Late in the third is when Mousseau really shone though, as the Ghostriders tried to close out the game by taking a two goal lead, Mousseau was making unbelievable saves to keep his team in the game. It wasn’t just quantity saves, but quality saves. Therefore, Mouesseau gets the nod as the Nitro’s Player of the Game.

In most games, I get annoyed with the ref, but in this game, I was annoyed with the linesmen. They made terrible calls, waving off icings that no one touched. Then I learned that one of the linesmen used to play for the Ghostriders… can we say “conflict of interest”?

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Saturday 28 December 2013

It’s Game Day(s)! Nitro’s vs Fernie Ghostrider’s Weekend Series

Since I am getting on the road to see this weekend series between the Dynamiters and the Ghostriders, I figured it was fitting to do this for today’s game instead of tomorrow’s, it really helps set up the series. Totally stoked to be cheering on the Nitro’s on a rivals turf, not to mention the fan bus that will be attending as well!

Kimberley Dynamiters
vs
Fernie Ghostriders
17-15-1-0
Record
14-11-0-5
35
Points
33
2nd
Division Standing
3rd
12th (3.39)
Offence (GFA)
10th (3.57)
7th (3.24)
Defense (GAA)
10th (3.33)
18th (.884)
Goaltending (SV%)
10th (.903)
12th (18.22%)
Power Play
17th (13.91%)
5th (82.18%)
Penalty Kill
17th (78.29%)
11th
Power Ranking
12th
W1
Streak
L3
6-4-0-0
Last 10
4-2-0-4
Jared Marchi (19G-21A)
Top Scorer
Aaron Neufeld (9G-19A)
Jason Richter (16G-15A)
2nd Top Scorer
Spender Bender (10G-15A)
Dylan Sibbald (9G-10A)
3rd Top Scorer
Kurtis Bond (10G-13A)
Dallin Wolf (111)
PIM Leader
Dylan Robertson (76)

Sunday 22 December 2013

Nitro’s blow up the Rockets with 8-3 win

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In a game in which the Nitro’s were tied or losing for just over half the game, a 8-3 win is outstanding!

Even when the ref called three straight penalties in a row against the Nitro’s which led to the Rockets scoring the first goal of the game on the power play. Which had some fans yelling “Take an assist ref!” – a very legitimate comment.

The Nitro’s returned with their own power play goal when the Rockets failed to clear the zone.

Mousseau made some awesome saves to keep the Nitro’s in the game. Most notably he stopped a breakaway chance early in the second, and kicked out the rebound for a beautiful second effort save. (I often want to call Mousseau ‘Moose’, but then I think of Johan Hedberg and his Moose mask and my desire for the Manitoba Moose to come back….)

The Nitro’s would have been up two goals, but one was disallowed (legitimately), and the other was missed by the official.

This vid shows the Rockets goalie mask falling off before the puck went in, so fair enough, the goal wasn’t allowed.

However, the second missed goal, scored by Garcia, came late in the third (shortly after his BEAUTIFUL toe drag behind the legs pass to setup Richter for the 3-2 lead). Garcia came streaking down the wing, snapped it in, the light went it, however the puck bounced out and play continued. I asked the goal judge during the intermission, and he said the puck was in and that it hit one of the metal pieces that the netting is tied to on the post and bounced back out. – It was too bad for Garcia, he would have had a goal to go with his three assists in the game.

During the third, the Nitro’s exploded with four goals in six minutes. Golden even tried switching their goalie after the third goal in the third period, but that didn’t stop us! Five goals were scored by the Nitro’s in the third period! Even the Grubstake Mascot chased the Rockets off the ice!

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Even though Revie and Richter had two goals, the Nitro’s Player of the Game was Tyler Garcia, he setup some nice plays.

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