Nitro's Night in Kimberley: Nitro’s blow up the Rockets with 8-3 win

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!