Kimberley’s hot streak came to a halt on home ice at the hands of the Princeton Posse on Saturday, with a 5-4 overtime loss, bringing their record for the season to 5 wins and one loss.
Dynamiters head coach and general manager Derek Stuart said that he thought the team was “terrible” until after the Posse’s fourth goal.
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“After that they only got five shots on net,” Stuart said. “I think if we prepared properly and didn’t take these guys too lightly, which is what I think happened, then I think it would have been a much different outcome.”
Stuart went on to say that he’s actually glad his team lost this game, as it will prevent them from achieving a “false sense of achievement.”
“We didn’t deserve to win this based on our start,” he said. “We underestimated them and we were cocky basically I think is what happened. And once the guys realized that they are a good hockey team then we started to put on a little bit but by then it was almost too late. I think it’s a good thing in the long run.”
This game saw Brock Palmer get three points, with one goal and two assists, bringing his total to nine goals scored this season.
The Nitros new acquisiton Jett Saharchuk scored his first goal with the team, a powerful one-timer into the back of the net with just seconds to go in the first.
“It was pretty exciting to get my first goal,” Saharchuk said following the game. “First game here and it was exciting, fans were awesome, so I was pretty pumped.”
“He played good,” Stuart said of Saharchuk. “He hasn’t played a game in a long time so for him to step right into a regular season game against a very quick, physical hockey club over there, I thought he did pretty well and he’s only going to get better and better as he gets more accustomed to our systems and more accustomed to playing.”
Saharchuk, who was acquired from the North Okanagan Knights, said that he was excited about the trade as he wants to be on a contender this year and says he hopes to bring a lot of offence to the team and be a leader.
The Nitros will be in Invermere on Friday taking on the Columbia Valley Rockies before heading back for a home game against the Golden Rockets on Saturday.
Stuart said that there is lots of work to be done in the meantime, including introducing new systems, as they’ve only introduced two so far.
“I think that’s another thing that’s sort of hindering us a little bit is getting everyone equalized to it and not introducing enough systems yet,” he said. “So after the first month, like we do every year, we’re going to start coaching more to win now and getting more of our systems in place, especially the neutral zone forecheck, which we haven’t even talked about yet. It needs a lot of work.”
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