The Beaver Valley Nitehawks won 4-of-5 games in a seven day span to take a strangle hold on the Neil Murdoch division of the KIJHL.
The Nitehawks topped off a busy week of hockey with a 6-5 overtime victory over the Spokane Braves on Sunday. The Hawks’ 24th win follows closely on a 3-2 victory over the Revelstoke Grizzlies on Friday, as well as a 4-1 drubbing of Nelson Tuesday, and a 5-3 victory over Castlegar Rebels on Monday. Their only loss came New Years Eve in Nelson when the lost 4-3 to the Leafs.
Defenceman McKoy Hauk netted the winning goal and Walker Sidoni had a goal and two assists to lead B.V. to the gritty victory that saw over 40 minutes of penalties called in the game. With 39 seconds remaining in the first overtime period, Hauk’s seemingly harmless point shot deflected off the Braves defenceman skate and by a stunned Spokane goalie Jon Manlow to hand the Braves their fourth overtime loss of the season and drop them to four points back of Castlegar for third place in the division. The win puts the Hawks five points up on Nelson who dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to 100 Mile House Wranglers on Sunday.
Call up Blake Sidoni opened the scoring for the Nitehawks at 17:18 when the Midget Ice forward jumped on a rebound off a Tyler Hartman shot and blasted it into the open side. Spokane returned the favour 80 seconds later when Kurtis Redding shovelled in his own rebound to tie it at 1-1. Then with B.V. down two men, Dillon Bogart wired a shot from the slot, high glove side on Carson Schamerhorn to give the Braves a 2-1 edge heading into the second despite being outshot by the Hawks 13-9.
However, Hawks forward Kyle Hope ripped a shot by Manlow at 13:58 of the second to tie it, and after Bogart restored the Braves lead by tipping in a Johnny Marzec pass, Hope would score his second of the night after taking a nifty pass from another Midget Ice call up, Kadrian Klimchuck down low, and make a move to the backhand to beat the Brave goalie and tie the game once again.
Taylor Stafford would give the Hawks the 4-3 lead, jumping on a Walker Sidoni point shot and backhanding it past Manlow. Spokane’s Redding would tie it again before the period is out, and and give Spokane its third lead of the game when Tanner Stoltz made a great individual effort, toe-dragging the puck through his legs as he burst by the Hawks d-man and driving to the net, cutting in front, then sliding the puck through the five-hole of Schamerhorn with 17:14 remaining.
But the Hawks would keep coming and Sidoni would get the equalizer jumping up into the play and when an Allan Pruss shot was mishandled by Manlow, Sidoni was there to bang in the loose puck with 11:32 to play.
The Hawks would kill off two late penalties as they outshot the Braves 50-30 on the night, going 2-for-7 on the power play while the Braves went 1-for-7. Allan Pruss also had a three-point night for the Hawks, while Klimchuk had two assists.
See more on the Nitehawks in Tuesday’s edition of the Trail Times.