Nitro's Night in Kimberley: The Kimberley Dynamiters are the KIJHL Champions with a 5-1 win over Kamloops in Game 6

Monday, 30 March 2015

The Kimberley Dynamiters are the KIJHL Champions with a 5-1 win over Kamloops in Game 6

Photo by Dana Saretsky

This series has been hostile to who ever the away team is, as neither team has won on the road. Kimberley looked to end that, and take the championship tonight. While Kamloops wanted the tradition to continue, as they are unbeaten at home in the playoffs heading into this game.

Game Notes

Kamloops has yet to lose a game at home during the playoffs.
Tyson Brouwer started against Jacob Mullen
Scratches/Injuries: Mallard, Wallace, Pagura

1st

The Nitro's got a PP chance early in the game, but came up empty. Brouwer then made several key saves to keep the game at zero, as Kamloops got odd man rushes, and odd redirects. The Kamloops captain was later penalized for 4 minutes. This time Kimberley jumped on the opportunity, Richter fired a shot from just inside the circle on Mullen's right side, and buried it on the uppercase shelf. However, as Kamloops has done all series, they had a quick response, tying the game 1-1 (showing how important the shift after a goal is). This high flying period ended with Kamloops having a slight edge in shots 13-12.

2nd

The period started on a sour note as Revie's body contorted as he went heavily into the boards. I don't disagree with the call, but tossing the Storm's captain out of such a key game seemed heavy handed (in my head I was thinking a 5+10, not 5+Game). Nonetheless, Kimberley had an opportunity to take the lead. Busch did just that, as his shot ricocheted before going in, originally Buckley was given the goal on the redirect, but it has since changed back to Busch. The hero from Game 5 crashed towards the net, in similar fashion to his OT winning goal, got the puck from Prevost and directed it in. Giving the Nitro's a 3-1 win. Kimberley led in shots 13-10.

3rd

Oh the nerves, and I'm just a fan. Sitting 3-1, I began to feel the excitement of winning, but knew there was still 20 minutes to play before any celebrating could happen. Van Steinburg crashed towards the net again, scoring his third goal in four periods - amping things up at the right time. 4-1 with 18 minutes left. You could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Kamloops began their push, but seemed disorganized. With just under 5 minutes left, Kamloops got a PP chance, Mullen went to the bench, and Kamloops skated 6-4 on their PP. Meier scored an SH EN goal with three minutes remaining. Again, I so wanted to celebrate and start playing Queen's "We are the champions" but a game isn't over until the final buzzer. The countdown began, 120 seconds, 90 seconds... Kimberley still playing intense self-sacrificing defense.... 60 seconds... EEEK! - Excited, Excited! .... 30 seconds .... KIMBERLEY ARE THE KIJHL CHAMPIONS!!!! The players and staff began celebrating, and the fans scattered across BC, Alberta, the rest of Canada, North America and around the world began celebrating!

The twitterverse exploded! There are too many tweets for me to list here. Amazing support for those young men.