The Beaver Valley Nitehawks are back home for the weekend with two challenging matches against the Golden Rockets on Friday and the Creston Valley Thunder Cats Saturday.
The Nitehawks have picked up points in 10 of their last 11 games, and play a Rockets team, which they beat 4-1 in Golden on Sept. 26, and kick-started their early season turn around.
But Golden has been anything but slouches lately, winning five of the their last seven matches including two wins over the Eddie Murdoch division leading Fernie Ghostriders, and a 6-2 drubbing of the division co-leading Kimberley Dynamiters.
The Rockets have potential to score in bunches with leading scorer Cole Mckechney, 4-14-18, setting up Ian Desroisier, 12-5-17, on a regular basis. Both players had four-point nights in an 8-4 win over the Ghostriders on Saturday, with Mckechney setting up Desroisiers twice, and both assisting on goals by James Gaume who netted a hat trick.
Beaver Valley has yet to play Creston in the 2014-15 regular season, but did split a pair of games with the Cats in preseason. Leading the Thunder Cats in scoring is Carson Cartwright, 5-5-10, and while Creston sports a .500 record (5-5-0-2), it’s just a matter of time before two-time BC Intercollegiate hockey champion and former Selkirk College Saints coach Jeff Dubois gets the Thunder Cats on the right track.
Goaltender Brock Lefebvre will likely get the start, having carried much of the load for the Cats this season, sporting four wins and four losses, and a 3.12 GAA and a .910 save percentage.
Nitehawk veterans Jacob Boyczuk and Taylor Stafford have stepped it up of late with Boyczuk netting four points in his last four games and Stafford collecting a three-point weekend, highlighted by his tying goal against Revelstoke, followed by Boyczuk’s winner.
Defenceman Andrew Miller has also been a bright spot on the blue line for the Hawks. The Trail native has three goals and 10 points in 15 games and is currently third in team scoring.
Game times for both Friday and Saturday is 7:30 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena.