Nitro's take Game #1 with 5-2 win

It sure is playoff time! In one of the fastest and short shift games of the year, the Nitro's were able to hang on during the first two periods and dominate the third, for a 5-2 win over Fernie.

The game started with a little controversy. Logan-Hill conveniently knocked off the net before the Nitro's scored in the first. In the third, Logan-Hill was bowled over by Buckley and his own defenseman, Buckley was given 5min and a game for the incident.

The officiating, while overall was decent, there were some miss calls and 'make up' calls that drove me crazy. For example, Garcia was pulled by the jersey down sliding feet first into the boards, no call. The 'make up' call, was after Buckley got a penalty in the second for charging, and drew one as well, the ref sheepishly called Marchi for slashing to allow the Ghostrider's to have their PP that they didn't have on the Buckley penalty.

While the game was fast paced and finesse, Miller delivered two solid hits during the third to increase the physical play.

Now, while Richter did have two goals and two assists, and Mousseau stopped 24 shots, the Nitro's Player of the Game was Buckley. Buckley had two goals and an assist, he got under the Ghostrider's skin, each time he got a penalty, he was able to draw a Ghostrider with him. Which had me tweet the following after the game:

The @RiderNewsKIJHL got their dosage of Buckley tonight. Go @nitroshockey Go! pic.twitter.com/bbr8Bp4TKT
— Josh Lockhart (@joshuaklockhart) February 26, 2014

The two teams play again tonight in Fernie.