The Kimberley Dynamiters won in overtime on Monday evening, in the first game of the divisional playoffs against the Columbia Valley Rockies. The Nitros defeated the Rockies 4-3 on a goal by Ryan Piva.
The team is pretty comfortable in overtime, says Head Coach and General Manager Derek Stuart, considering they have played a lot of overtime games this year. But overall, the coach was not entirely pleased with the play of his team last night.
“I didn’t like our game too much,” Stuart said Tuesday, as the team prepared for another home game.
“They outplayed us. Not by a whole lot, but we’re not going to win many games playing like that.”
Stuart couldn’t say exactly why the team didn’t perform up to their standards, but he ruled out fatigue.
“It’s not fatigue. They had three days off. It could be taking the opposition too lightly, or that it takes them a game to get involved in a series.”
Stuart says the same thing happened in the Creston series, where the Nitros lost their first game. He’s looking for a repeat of game 2 against Creston tonight, he says, when the team played much better.
And there were bright spots.
“Adam Andersen (goalie) kept us in the game in the second period,” Stuart said. “Keegan McDowell was real good. It’s not that the effort wasn’t there from everyone, but the execution was poor.”
Stuart says he likes the team’s resiliency, as they scored late in third to tie it up.
“There’s been a lot of overtime this year and the guys are comfortable in overtime. I think it’s good for the guys not to quit, to see you can get a win even if you’re not playing your best.”
The team plays again at home tonight, then it’s up to Invermere for games three and four on Thursday and Friday.
