Highlights of Nitro's comeback win over Chase Heat

Nitro's score 3 in final minutes to complete comeback win over Chase Heat

The Chase Heat, in their cross uniform of the Abbotsford Heat logo and Ottawa Senators jersey, were tied or had a lead over the Nitro's for 59 minutes and 36 seconds of the game. Just when it seemed like the Dynamiters undefeated start to the season was coming to an end, the impossible became possible.

The Heat had a goalie, Jacob Mattes, who for a majority of the game was having an incredible night. The Nitro's out-shot the Heat 43-26 throughout the game. But the Heat took a 3-1 lead 2 minutes into the third period, despite the shot advantage, and all hope melted away of the undefeated streak.

Darren Martin even tried to score a goal like Ovechkin to cut into the lead.

But with just under three minutes left, Rosolowsky scored to make it 3-2. Then Marchi tied it with 1:24 left and it looked like the game was headed to overtime. Timeouts were being called on both sides to calm the players. And then to complete the comeback, Bogdanek scored with 24 seconds left in the game. It left the attending Heat fans at a loss and dejected, as they watched their team lose a stellar game in 3 minutes, while the Nitro's fans were elated, and the undefeated streak was kept alive!

Nitro's Player of the Game: Jared Marchi, for his game tying goal.

Check out the boxscore on the KIJHL website.

Nitro's add Players

The Kimberley Dynamiters have popped up on the KIJHL's transaction page. They acquired the following players on Wednesday:

Alex Dartnell, a left-winger from Edmonton, AB.
Ryan Fairfield, a defenseman from Calgary, AB.
Tyler Kinnon, a defenseman from Calgary, AB.

Highlights from Nitros win over Sicamous

September 23 - KIJHL Power Rankings

Before I get to the power rankings, let me first introduce my system. I will use the Kimberley Dynamiters as an example. There are four categories: Special Teams, Offence, Defence, and Goaltending.

Special Teams is calculated by using a version of the Scotty Bowman Index, adding the percentages of the Power Play and Penalty Kill together. Offence is calculated by the average goals forced per game (if the league posted team total shots, I would calculate a shooting percentage for offensive efficiency). Defence is the average goals against per game. Goaltending is calculated using the goalies save percentage.

The Nitro's are 93.75% on the Power Play and 22.86% on the Penalty Kill, giving them a Total Special Team Percentage of 116.61, which is #1 in the league. The Nitro's have scored an average 3.4 goals per game, ranked 11th in the league. They have let in an average 1.8 goals per game, 1st in the league. The goalies have earned a .940 save percentage which is 2nd in the league. So add, 1, 11, 1, and 2 together and that equals 15 points.

The point system is like golf, the lower the better. So the most efficient teams would be close to 4 total points (1st in each category), the mid-pack is close to 40 (10th in each category), and the poorest teams would be near 80 (20th in each category).

Enough explaining, here is the numbers (I will show less number details as the season goes along, this should help with understanding):

TEAM	TTL SpT	SpT Rank	GFA	RANK	GAA	RANK	SV%	RANK	OVERALL
Kimberley Dynamiters	116.61	1	3.40	11	1.80	1	0.940	2	15
Beaver Valley Nitehawks	102.38	9	4.00	5	2.00	2	0.943	1	17
Kelowna Chiefs	114.92	3	4.60	4	2.60	4	0.918	7	18
Kamloops Storm	103.49	7	4.80	3	2.80	6	0.917	8	24
Grand Forks Border Bruins	104.38	5	4.00	6	3.20	10	0.921	5	26
Nelson Leafs	115.41	2	5.67	2	3.00	8	0.890	14	26
Fernie Ghostriders	111.96	4	3.75	9	3.25	11	0.911	9	33
North Okanagan Knights	103.85	6	3.75	8	3.00	7	0.898	12	33
Castlegar Rebels	102.43	8	3.83	7	3.17	9	0.909	10	34
Summerland Steam	93.33	16	3.20	12	2.80	5	0.931	3	36
Chase Heat	86.67	18	2.75	15	2.50	3	0.922	4	40
Creston Valley Thunder Cats	97.99	14	5.75	1	3.75	15	0.882	16	46
Sicamous Eagles	100.45	11	2.50	17	3.33	12	0.919	6	46
100 Mile House Wranglers	100	12	2.80	14	3.40	13	0.898	13	52
Columbia Valley Rockies	83.68	19	3.60	10	3.60	14	0.908	11	54
Osoyoos Coyotes	88.01	17	3.00	13	3.80	16	0.886	15	61
Revelstoke Grizzlies	101.69	10	1.75	20	5.25	19	0.869	17	66
Princeton Posse	96.02	15	2.40	18	4.80	17	0.866	18	68
Golden Rockets	99.83	13	2.40	19	5.40	20	0.825	20	72
Spokane Braves	83.65	20	2.67	16	4.83	18	0.861	19	73

Highlights from Nitros 4-3 win over Fernie

Nitro's remain undefeated with 4-3 win over Ghostrider's

Around 500 people showed up at the Kimberley Civic Centre to watch the Kimberley Dynamiters and the Fernie Ghostriders face-off. Always a great match-up, and this game delivered.

There were fights, crunching hits, and beautiful goals. The Nitros continue to be dynamite on the powerplay (that's right, I'm punny). Fernie was unable to maintain any kind of lead. Only being able to hold a lead for 3:19, 3:24 and 0:25 after each goal. Yes, the Nitro's did not hold a lead until scoring in the last minute of the game. But what matters is the 'W', and the Nitro's earned it by playing clutch hockey.

The Nitro's player of the game was #21, Dylan Sibbald. While he did not earn a point in the match, his speed led to several chances and the drawing of a couple penalties, most importantly one that negated the remainder of five minute power play for Fernie.

Before I show some shots of the game, I first must draw attention to the Ghostrider's cave man, or neanderthal ways. The Ghostriders remind me a lot of the Philadelphia Flyers post-dead puck era, when the Flyers thought that big, tall, and not to mention slow, defenseman would scare opponents. Well it turns out that doesn't work, as Sibbald so showed off, you can just skate around them. But more to the point, how then, when a teams logic is based on the old-school-survival-of-the-fittest-is-that-the-biggest-and-bulkiest-wins, select it's captain? Just select the tallest looking person on the bench to be the alpha-male to lead the cavemen. Easy and simple logic.

Now to some shots of the game:

Subway winner just before the singing of the National Anthem

Intermission, chance to win!

Fernie's Oldelein being wrestled down by the Nitro's Stishenko

Opening face-off for 3rd period

The Puck Toss in Kimberley...

Uses real pucks! Hear that clapping sound? Yup, those are real pucks. Not like those fake rats used in Florida.

Nitro's start three game weekend with tie to Rockies

Tyson Brouwer stopped 36 of 38 shots during 70 minutes of play to lead the Nitro's to a 2-2 tie with the Columbia Valley Rockies for his first game of the year (and with the Nitros). Easily making him the player of the game.

The game would have been 2-0 for the Nitros if:

• Columbia Valley had passed, because both goals were lone rangers.
• they didn't set Columbia Valley up so nicely

And just two other random musings:

1. If a player knocks over the official, like Columbia Valley did to the linesman (or in this case lines-person), there should be consequences.
2. I enjoy the double overtime to determine a winner. Playing 4-on-4 and then 3-on-3 to get a result is much more entertaining than a shootout. And if the teams skate to a tie after this, then it should be a tie.

Remember to go to the KIJHL website for the boxscore and for the webcast archive (when available).

Highlights from Nitro's 5-0 win over Golden Rockets

Nitro's blank Golden Rockets in Season Opener

What does 0, 70 , 7 and 28 have in common with the Golden Rockets? They took 28 shots against Mousseau and scored zero goals (they laid the goose-egg, went out for a duck, and lost like a girls basketball team). They took 70 penalties in minutes, because the Rockets' coach didn't like a particular non-call and said "it's F#$%ing on."  Resulting in 7 Nitros players getting points and his bench looking like this late in the third:

Now just for some perspective, said coach got mad at this call at about the halfway point in the second period when the Nitro's were up 1-0. The next 4 goals all came on the powerplay for the Nitros, giving them 40% efficiency on the powerplay.

So I would personally like to thank the Rockets coach for letting us win. If he would have coached properly without the emotion of rage taking over, it could have been a closer game. Let it be a lesson that 'revenge' isn't always the best policy, and it may come to bite you. So Thanks Golden Rocket's Coach.

Here are just some more shots from the game:

This is probably how the Rocket's felt through out the night, out-numbered.

 

It's pretty lonely when your team is on the powerplay 10 times.

Remember, you can get in on the puck toss for cool prizes!

Well done boys! This was a fantastic start to the new season. And at this rate, Mousseau is going to have a lot of shutouts!

Nitro's Player of the game: Jeremy Mousseau for his 28 save shutout performance.
Runner-up: Eric Buckley, for his buzzer beater goal in the 2nd that got under the Rockets skin.

Visit the KIJHL website for the full scorecard. If you missed the game, you can always check out the Webcast of the game in the archives (when available).

Eddie Mountain Division Predictions

So here are my 2013-14 Eddie Mountain Division predictions:

In last place is: Fernie Ghostriders, because when you are ghosts and your bus is from hell, things don't bode well.
In fourth is: Columbia Valley Rockies, because they went winless against the Nitro's in pre-season play.
In third is Creston Thunder Cats. Well, just because it is Creston.
In second is Golden Rockets, just so we can ignite last years rivalry between our two clubs in the playoffs.
And in first: is the Kimberley Dynamiters. Duh!

Go Nitros Go!

Dynamiters Season Opener is Tonight at 7!

It's Game Day!

Volunteers Needed for Home Games

The Kimberley Dynamiters are looking for volunteers. This is a great way to get involved with the team, see some local hockey, but to also be a part of the community.

Here are some of the opportunities with the Nitro's:

• Anthem Singer. Who wouldn't want this kind of experience. Just do better than her.
• 50/50 Ticket Sellers.
• Mascots.
• Game Night Event Coordinator.

If you are interested in helping out at the games, contact Dave at daveysmitty69 (at) gmail (dot) com. Or you can ask at the booster booth during home games.

Nitros tie Columbia Valley 3-3 in first pre-season game

It was the first exhibition game of the year for the Nitros and they skated to a 3-3 tie with Columbia Valley. But it looked like it could have been worse given the boys performance in the first period.

The Nitros were down 1-0 after 20 minutes and seemed to be out of sync. They were being skated around. My kids even noticed that I was getting upset about the poor clearing attempts, passes that were off, and play that was overall: sloppy.

And then after a scoreless 2nd and careless penalties, Columbia Valley went up 2-0. Then I started telling myself that it was only an exhibition game and that it shouldn't be taken to seriously. And then it was 2-1, 2-2 ....and 3-2 Nitros lead! And I started taking this exhibition game seriously.

Unfortunately in the final minute of play while on the power play in our own zone. The defenceman went to clear the puck out of the zone to go on the offensive, but his stick broke, the unlucky break, and then the game was tied.

It was an excellent showing, and has me excited for the season opener on September 14!

My kids love going to the game, because everyone from the opposing teams back-up players, to security all love to see my kids so excited about hockey. So much so, that the "Zee-boni" driver (as my kids say) came up and gave each of my kids a puck. Making it even more memorable.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the score clock is different this year. It doesn't just say "home" and "away" it is digital and says "Nitros"!

Bancks signs with Abbotsford Heat

Congrats to Nitro's Alumni Carter Bancks for signing his one year deal with the Abbotsford Heat and staying in the Flames system. This will be his 5th season with the Heat. Congrats and good luck Carter! Hope to see you in a Flames uniform again.