The Kimberley Dynamiters brought a lead into the final frame last night, but they couldn’t take a win out of Creston.
The Nitros wound up dropping a 3-1 decision in an important game against the Eddie Mountain Division rival Thundercats.
“We had the lead going into the third, but they just outplayed us,” said Kimberley head coach Kevin MacKay. “We played a pretty good game with 41 shots, but it’s starting to sound a bit like a broken record: our inability to generate goals is coming back to haunt us in a few games.”
Taylor McDowell scored his sixth goal of the season seven minutes into the middle period to give Kimberley their lead.
It lasted until 2:47 of the third, when Colton Meaden scored for Creston.
“It was 1-1, then we made a soft couple of plays and they got the winner,” MacKay said.
Meaden’s linemate Ryan Hewitt got into the act at 14:32, while Lawrence Brennan closed out scoring with an empty-netter.
“It was just a matter that they seemed to want it a little more than we did,” said MacKay. “They were a little hungrier in the third period. For 40 minutes, we played pretty well but we’ve got to make sure we finish off teams a little bit harder than we have been.”
Creston pulled itself five points up on Kimberley, with 54. The Nitros are one point shy of the Golden Rockets, who are in third place in the division.
Mike Smith was between the pipes for Kimberley, turning aside 29 shots on the way to a third-star selection.
Creston counterpart Sunny Gill made 40 saves.
Last night was longtime Thundercat Adam Taylor’s first game against Creston in a Dynamiters’ uniform.
“He was pretty jacked up. He played okay — he probably had a better game the other night (in his Kimberley debut, a 5-2 win over Chase) but he played well. The fans were on him pretty hard here,” said MacKay.
The coach said the line of Matt Foster, Brennan Romanovitch and Kieran Spice was Kimberley’s best, but an All-Connor unit impressed him as well.
With Kimberley’s sickbay bursting at the seams, they had to borrow three Connors from the midget Cranbrook. Forwards Kutzner, McLuckie and Anderson lined up together.
“They actually played quite well for us as a unit, and generated some offence and some intensity. I thought they had an outstanding game,” said MacKay.
The trio didn’t see the ice much in the third, particularly after Creston pulled ahead.
The Connors had practiced with the Nitros on Monday night.
‘That’s one thing we’ve done pretty good here this year,” said MacKay. “We’ve had a lot of affiliates up to practice, and with our low roster size we’ve had a lot of affiliates play in the games.”