Three in a row over the Lethbridge Maple Leafs is the record of the Kimberley
Dynamiters in the Alberta-B.C. Interprovincial Hockey Playdowns, the boys following up their win in Nelson, by scoring a
4-2 win in Lethbridge in the second encounter; and finished the series with a like score in Calgary on Saturday. A number
of fans from Kimberley district witnessed the game in both cities, and they report the games as being very hard fought,
with the Leafs putting up a very fine battle before going under to a team that had a slight edge throughout. When the Leafs
were defeated on their own pond in Lethbridge, it was just a question of whether or not they could win one game in the
series, and they were unable to do that trick.
The Kimberley players were the first to give the Lethbridge boys a good hand, stating that they
were a fine club. Alberta papers, after not giving the Dynamiters a tumble before play got under way, came back to give the
locals plenty of credit as a smart club, and now are pulling for the Kimberley club to go on to beat Port Arthur, their
next opponents. The Bearcats disposed of the Saskatoon entry in straight games to gain the western final spot against the
Dynamiters.
A brief run over the two last games with the Leafs, finds the Dynamiters taking a one goal lead in the first
period of the game in Lethbridge as that very potent power play clicked. Lethbridge evened it up early in the second period
also as they sat with a man advantage. Dynamiters got that back quickly as the Wilson-Redding and Brown combination again
clicked on a power attack. A Stewart-Kirkpatrick play that clicked perfectly put the Leafs back on even terms before the
period ended.
The third period was mostly hard checking with both teams having trouble working in on goal but eventually
the break came to the locals as a shot was deflected into the Leafs' goal off a Lethbridge player's skate. Mackie got
credit for this one. With the Leafs on a desperate five man attack, in an effort to get that goal back, Brown broke into
clear and skated in to beat Young and put the game on ice.
The game on Saturday in Calgary would seem to have been a carbon
copy of Thursday's game. Dynamiters gained that one goal lead as Mackie and Brown clicked. Stewart got that back for
Lethbridge, and then Wilson put Kimberley in the lead again to make it 2-1.
Dynamiters were up 3-1 early in the second
period with Chris Sorenson beating Young and a couple minutes later it was 3-2 as Stewart again scored on a lone effort.
From this point on it would seem the locals were content to lay back and let the Lethbridge boys come to them, breaking
only when the Leafs were off balance. Brilliant work by the two goalies kept the score at the same mark until the dying
moments of the game.
With but a couple of minutes remaining Fenn of the Leafs was waved to the cooler. Freddy Metcalfe,
coach of the Leafs, countered by pulling Andy Young out of the nets and putting on five forwards in a last desperate effort.
Brown, ever on the alert, put the game in the bag as he got hold of the puck and shot from center into the empty Lethbridge
goal, to make it 4-2, and the series was over.
Referees for the complete series were Earl Overand of Calgary and Carl
Kendall of Trail, and radio commentators gave this pair a lot of credit for their work.
Puffy Kemp, injured in the Trail series, got back into action at odd moments in the Lethbridge and Calgary games, being
used mostly when the power play was on. He should be ready for regular service for the Port Arthur series.
