On Saturday, Nov. 23 the Kimberley Dynamiters took on their biggest rivals the Fernie Ghostriders, the first time this season playing them at Fernie's rink.
Both teams were coming off wins. Fernie had played the night before and defeated Creston in the first period of overtime. The Dynamiters' last game was one week earlier, when they dished out a 9-1 thrashing to the Golden Rockets.
In their first two match-ups this season the Dynamiters came out on top, beating the Ghostriders 3-2 and 5-4. Keeping up with this trend, it was another one-goal game on Saturday night, however this time Fernie was victorious with a 5-4 win.
Fernie captain Taylor Haggerty drew first and second blood, with two power play goals at one minute and five minutes into the first period.
Luke Davies put the Dynamiters on the board with less than 20 seconds left in the first period, his tenth goal of the season. He'd then score his eleventh to tie things up early in the second.
"Luke is competing and working hard to get opportunities," said Dynamiters' head coach and general manager Derek Stuart. "It's resulting in getting and creating scoring chances every game."
Fernie fired back, with their third straight power play goal, courtesy of Riley Enns. There were three penalties in the second period — two for Fernie, one for Kimberley — and goals were scored on every power play. The third came from Calan Valstar, his second goal of the season, tying the game up at 3-3 heading into the third period.
Staying out of the penalty box when possible is something the Dynamiters have been working on throughout this season.
"I was happy with our discipline overall, however two of our three penalties were completely unnecessary," Stuart said. "We gifted them two power plays for free, without doing anything to earn them."
The third remained scoreless until Fernie's Liam Breakenridge scored two in rapid succession: two goals in less than ten seconds.
Riley Langille's late goal made it 5-4 and kept the Dynamiters in the game with a chance, but Fernie was able to ward them off and take the win in an extremely close contest.
Both goaltenders had their work cut out for them on Saturday night, with Kimberley's Marc Samyn saving 25 of 30 shots on goal and Nick Kunyk stopping 25 of 29.
Though they didn't come away with the win, the Dynamiters had a lot of positive takeaways from the game.
"We dominated the game five on five," Stuart said. "Held them to five scoring chances at even strength, but special teams are a big part of the game and when your opponent's power play is good and your penalty kill has an off night, that's not going to end well."
After this game the Dynamiters are still on top of the Eddie Mountain division standings at 30 points, six clear of the Columbia Valley Rockies, who are just one point ahead of the Ghostriders, who have 23 points so far this season. They've also played four less games than the Dynamiters.
Coming up Fernie will head to Golden on Friday, Nov. 29 and then welcome the Rockets to their rink on Saturday, Nov. 30.
The Dynamiters, meanwhile won't be back at the Civic Centre until Tuesday, Dec. 10. They are on the road the next two weekends, with games against Sicamous, Revelstoke, Grand Forks and Spokane.
