The Beaver Valley Nitehawks capped off a five-game winning streak with an exciting 5-4 double overtime victory over the Kootenay-Conference leading Fernie Ghostriders on Saturday.
The Hawks gained a measure of revenge from their last meeting with the Ghostriders, an 8-1 Fernie win on Nov. 21 in B.V., and move within two points of the Nelson Leafs (43 points) for top spot in the Murdoch division while Fernie leads the Eddie Mountain division and all teams in the Kootenay Conference with 49 points.
After a 3-1 victory at home over the Sicamous Eagles on Friday, Hawks defenceman Andrew Miller broke a 4-4 tie, scoring at 2:38 of the second overtime period to beat the Ghostriders and give B.V. it’s fifth win in a row and 18th on the season. With assists going to Taylor Stafford and Devin Nemes, the goal was the defenceman’s eighth of the year and 22nd point to lead all Hawk blueliners.
Mitch Foyle, B.V.’s leading scorer, made it 1-0 at 12:35 of the first period when he took a Ross Armour pass and beat Fernie goalie Jeff Orser. But the Ghostriders replied at 5:43 when Dylan Robertson beat Hawk’s goalie Drake Poirier, and would take a 2-1 lead with 49 seconds remaining in the period on a Taylor Sincennes goal, outshooting the Hawks 15-9 in the period.
B.V. would rally in the second, when Spencer McLean finished a nice set up from Foyle and Armour to tie it, but Fernie would go up 77 seconds later on a Joel Burgess goal. With less than a minute to play in the middle frame, Jace Weegar would finish a pretty passing play with Alan and Michael Pruss to tie it at three heading into the third.
Michael Pruss would give the Hawks a 4-3 lead at 13:21, but the Ghostriders Robertson tied it up on the power play with 93 seconds remaining in regulation to send it to OT.
Fernie outshot B.V. 37 to 35 but another strong performance from Poirier netted him player of the game for B.V. while Sincennes claimed it for Fernie.
On Friday Carson Schamerhorn stopped 25 shots in net for the Nitehawks as they held on for a 3-1 victory against a strong Sicamous team. Miller and Foyle would put the Hawks in front 2-0 before the Eagles Owen Rowsell could reply at at 13:46 of the second period. The Hawks Kyle Hope netted an insurance marker with less than three minutes to play, as B.V. outshot the Eagles 43 to 26 and went 1-for-5 on the power play while Sicamous was 0-for-2.
The Nitehawks next home game goes Tuesday against Spokane Braves at 7 p.m. at the B.V. Arena.
See Tuesday’s Times for more on the Nitehawks.