Friday, October 22nd, 2021 Kimberley 4 Rockets 0
Coming off a lopsided 7-2 loss on their home-ice against Beaver Valley last Saturday, the Dynamiters were looking to rebound back into the win column, and seemed to tighten-up their defensive game dramatically against the Rockets.
On the surface, it may look as if the game was somewhat of a runaway for Kimberley, however the score does not truly indicate the close play or the solid end-to-end action.
Lady Luck vacated the Goldenites on this night who, despite having several good opportunities to score, could not put the puck behind Trystan Self in the opposition cage. Rockets netminder Michael O’Sullivan suffered his initial loss of the season between the pipes.
In the opening period, the Rockets found themselves with a pair of powerplay opportunities but couldn’t connect. The only tally of the opening frame came midway through off the stick of Kimberley’s Connor Klassen.
The southern neighbours added a pair of goals in the middle stanza, to open up a 3-0 lead. With Golden’s talented rearguard Nicolas Regan in the penalty box at 10:01, Kimberley hit on the power play, then added an evened-strength goal just two minutes later.
The Nitros closed out the scoring at 9:51 of the third period, to record the 4-0 win. Jordan Lario was selected as the Rockets “Player of the Game”.
Saturday, October 23rd, 2021 Creston 7 Golden 2
With the recap of the Kimberley game on Friday, it was mentioned the Nitros had recently suffered a 7-2 loss to the Beaver Valley NiteHawks. In a bit of some odd irony a week later, the Rockets are about to experience a similar defeat at the hands of the ThunderCats.
This one started quickly. Creston wasted little time hitting the scoreboard, striking at the :52 second mark. Golden however, wasn’t to be deterred, as the line of Will Vernon, Aidan Ballance and Jordan Lario worked their magic, hitting at 10:43 and 18:14 to open a 2-1 Rocket lead. But the remainder of the game belonged to Creston.
Rockets demise came the the second period, where the opposition struck for no less than five goals. The big blows came with Creston tallies within one minute; twice. At 5:19 and 6:22, the ThunderCats hit for two quick goals and took the lead at 3-2, a margin extended to 4-2 midway through the frame. Then again, at 14:09 and 14:54, a second brace of goals (both on the power play) widened the gap even further.
Creston added a singleton in the third period to record the eventual 7-2 victory.
