Trail native Blake Sidoni netted his first hat trick as a Nitehawk to lead Beaver Valley to an important win over Fernie on Saturday.
The Nitehawks won a set of road games on the weekend, beating Grand Forks 2-1 on Friday before heading to Fernie to exorcise the Ghostriders 6-2.
Hawks goaltender Tallon Kramer stopped 42 shots and Sidoni tallied what proved to be the winning goal at 9:50 of the second period to put the Hawks up 3-1.
The Nitehawks jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Braden Fuller power play goal at 13:20 in the opening frame, despite being outshot 11-9. McKoy Hauk and Jace Weegar worked the puck to Fuller who sniped it past Fernie goalie Jeff Orser.
The Ghostriders tied it at 16:17 of the second when Justin Peers finished a pass from Montrose native Mitch Titus on the power play. But Michael Pruss scored his 12th goal of the season, with assists to Tyler Hartman and Jake Yuris at 11:08 to take a 2-1 lead. After Sidoni’s goal, Allan Pruss took a feed from Devin Nemes and wired it by Orser to with less than two minutes remaining in the second period.
Sidoni netted his second of the game shorthanded on a great individual effort to make it 5-1. After Keagan Kingwell made it 5-2, Sidoni completed his hat trick with an empty netter with 46 seconds left on the clock to score his seventh of the season to go along with 14 assists.
The victory puts the 24-5-1-2 Hawks eight points ahead of the Castlegar Rebels who uncharacteristically lost to the Grand Forks Border Bruins 5-2 on Saturday, while Beaver Valley broke a three-game losing streak against the Bruins on Friday with a 2-1 victory.
Down 1-0 in the third, Karsten Jang blasted a shot by Border Bruins goalie Anthony Galliart to tie it at 14:49. Then 2:37 later, Nolan Percival scored the winning goal converting a Weegar pass to notch his fifth of the season and fourth in eight games for the Hawks.
Kramer closed the door after that, stopping 31 shots on the night, while Galliart blocked 43 in net for the Border Bruins.
Beaver Valley’s next game goes on Tuesday, Dec. 29 when they host the Castlegar Rebels, and play Nelson in a home-and-home starting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at tthe Hawks Nest.