With a couple of wins during the last weekend of the regular season, the Kimberley Dynamiters can assure themselves of a first-round series with Creston.

If they win all three and the Thundercats lose their last two, the Nitros will take home ice advantage.

The latter scenario is out of their control, but they want to get off to a good start by beating the Columbia Valley Rockies tonight in Invermere.

“The guys know what we have to do,” said head coach Kevin MacKay. “I don’t think they’re too nervous. We’ve been pretty dedicated to what has to be done in the last few weeks and months. There’s really not much to do.”

Their weekend wraps up with a home-and-home with the Golden Rockets, who enter the weekend with a one-point advantage on fourth-place Kimberley.

“The mindset we’ve taken is the next game is the biggest game,” said MacKay. “We’ve been in that mode for some time. I’m pretty confident we’ll come out (Friday against Columbia Valley) with some jump and some energy. The last couple of games, we’ve played pretty well against Invermere and pushed them quite hard.

“It’s huge: we have to go into the home-and-home ahead of Golden. You want to be ahead of them, so that means we need to come up with the two points.”

The last game of the season is at the Civic Centre on Sunday, 6 p.m.

“It’s the last game, fan appreciation night and a big 50-50 draw. There’s some excitement,” said MacKay, who said the players could use a full, loud building.

“They’ll get jacked up on that. We’ve played quite well at home this year, but there could still be a bit more of a buzz. This is a pretty hard-working team that we’ve got, so it would be nice for the town to get behind them.”

The Nitros carded a pair of local athletes this week: Jack Caldwell and Casey Hanemayer have been skating with Kimberley for a few weeks, but haven’t been playing hockey this season.

MacKay said the 1991-born players were added as an insurance against any further injuries with the playoffs fast approaching.

“I’m not sure how much time they’ll play, but we were up-front with them there. It’s more of a stop-gap in case we lose any more guys,” said the coach.

Defenceman Corson Johnstone resumed skating this week after being hurt Jan. 15.

Forwards Brennan Foreman and Chad Filatoff are still a ways away from getting back on the ice.