All it took was three minutes and some penalty trouble.
Nursing a 16-point lead at the halfway mark of the EKRDL championship in Kimberley on Saturday night, the Bavarian Barbarians allowed the Invermere Killer Rollbots to close the gap near the end of the match until they were only three points away.
But then disaster struck, and the Rollbots took advantage with some power jams.
“The turning point was we got just a bit too excited,” said Nicole Kapell, who skates as Indiana Bones Crusher for the Barbarians. “We couldn’t calm down and we started getting super excited and started taking some unnecessary penalties.”
Those late penalties were mostly for cutting the track—when a skater is pushed out of bounds and reenters the track ahead of where she left it.
“Three of our four penalties that we got in the last six minutes was our jammers cutting the track, so they get pushed out and jump back in as soon as possible, and they cut in front of girls ahead of the other team,” said Kapell.
The Rollbots got power jams out of those penalties—and with the Barbarias unable to score points with their jammer in the box—the Invermere team was able to pull ahead and take a 166-153 win.
“We always have fun playing Invermere. I think we play them at least once a year for the last three years and this year we played them twice,” said Kapell.
“…We know a lot of the girls and it’s a good rivalry and we’re pretty evenly matched. This one was a 13-point difference, the last one was a 12-point difference, so it’s been a really nice season playing against them.”
The Barbarians beat the Rollbots during an earlier regular-season match that gave them first place in the league.
That will do it for the East Kootenay roller derby season, however, the Barbarians are hoping to host an exhibition match in August against a team out of Moose Jaw. If anyone is interested in trying out roller derby, the Barbarians can be contacted through their Facebook page.