The Creston Thundercats’ tilt against their Kimberley Dynamiters rivals came down to a shoot-out Friday night, at the Johnny Bucyk Arena in Creston at the ‘Cats’ home opener of the 2023/24 KIJHL regular season.
There was a lot of offence on display in the back-and-forth. Kimberley’s Kade Leskosky opened the scoring at the six-minute mark, followed by his teammate Parker Konneke three minutes later.
Tyson Tokarz got the ‘Cats on the board in the dying seconds of the first period, with his first goal of the young season, and Luke Chakrabarti tied the game early in the second, with his fourth goal of the season.
The two teams proceeded to trade goals for the rest of the game — Landon Hedges gave Creston a brief lead (on the power play), with Tristan Weill answering for Kimberley (on the power play). Chakrabarti got his second of the game only one minute into the third, but Konneke’s second of the game for the Dynamiters tied it again.
And so to overtime, which solved nothing.
In the subsequent shootout, Kimberley shooters Leskosky and Weill were successful on their attempts against Creston goaltender Jacob Burnside, while on the Creston side, Chakrabarti and Tokarz were stymied by Ryder Ponto in net for Kimberley.
Final Score, 5-4 Kimberley.
Burnside stopped 24 of 28 shots for Creston, while Ponto faced 42 shots from the Thundercats, stopping 38.
The shootout loss to the Dynamiters puts the Thundercats at a 2-1 record as the season gets underway. Creston won on the road, 3-2 against 100 Mile House on Sept. 22, then a 2-1 loss in Kamloops the next night, Sept. 23.
As of press time for the Creston Advance, the Thundercats were on the road, to Fernie, to face the Ghostriders Tuesday evening, Oct. 3. They then travel to Nelson to take on the Leafs on Saturday, Oct. 7.
Creston’s next home game is Sunday, Oct. 8, as they face the North Okanagan Knights at the Johnny Bucyk.