Friday, October 29th, 2021 Kimberley 3 Golden 1
The Rockets were finally back on home-ice after a pair of extended road trips, and tangled with the Kimberley Dynamiters before the hometown crowd at the Plywood Palace.
Prior to the start of the contest, the Rockets “Player Of The Month” accolades were presented to talented Golden netminder Levi Hall, who was very instrumental in the Rockets strong start to the season.
We saw a tangible example of this goaltending skill just two minutes into the opening period, when a quick takeaway at centre ice gave Kimberley a long breakaway, and Hall came up big with the huge early save. Golden took the early lead, on the powerplay at 6:12, when the crafty Henry Loewen struck for his fourth goal of the season, assisted by veteran Connor Funke.
That score stood until 6:35 of the second period when, with Rockets sturdy defence man Nicolas Regan off for a tripping infraction, the Dynamiters tied things up with a powerplay of their own as Carter Spring found the mark. Just under two minutes later, the visitors moved ahead 2-1 as Christian Mealey’s quick snapshot from the left side beat Hall low to the stick side.
In the final period there were quality scoring opportunities by both clubs at each end of the ice. But the only tally came into the empty net at 18:40 off the stick of Kimberley’s Austin Daniels. Final score was 3-1 for the Nitros. The teams evenly split the 18 penalties called by referee Martin Hajek. Dynamiters outshot the Rockets 40-22. Golden’s penalty-kill units were strong all game.
