Tuesday, January 4th, 2022 Kimberley 6 Rockets 0
For the third time this season the Dynamiters, behind strong netminding, shutdown the Rockets offensive attack.
Again, without sounding too dramatic about the final score, the Rockets played Kimberley very close for much of the contest. The first two periods were a ‘toss-up’; close-checking and high-tempo for the full length of the ice. The same held true for the final period as well, albeit the Nitros certainly made the most of their scoring opportunities.
In the opening frame the Rockets played a solid two-way game. The checking was fairly close for much of the period before Kimberley opening the scoring with a bit of a hockey-oddity, recording their first goal despite never even taking a shot on the net.
It all started late in the frame, with a delayed-penalty waiting to be whistled-down. Rockets’s goaltender Levi Hall vacated the Golden net for the extra-attacker, and the Rocket defender with the puck was backing-up slowly in front of his own net looking up-ice. Somehow the puck rolled-off the blade of his stick and crossed the goal-line. (Hey, we’ve all seen similar happenings even in the pros). The first period ended 1-0. Shots were deadlocked at 8-8.
In the middle period much of the same, with the play becoming a little tighter. The Dynamiters extended their lead to 2-0 at the 9:37 mark on a breakaway goal, a shot that Levi Hall had made a great initial save, but the puck trickled in behind him and into the net.
A Rocket highlight of the period came at 16:30 when, with Kimberley moving over centre-ice on a two-man breakaway, Golden defenceman Ethan Aebly came up with a tremendous backcheck to catch the two Nitro skaters and breakup the play.
The third period was another sort of oddity as well. Rockets did not play too badly, outshooting their opponents in the period. However, as stated before, the Dynamiters connected on their chances with regularity, striking with four unanswered goals to take an eventual 6-0 win. Kimberley outshot Golden 34-30. Trystan Self recorded the shutout.
