The Beaver Valley Nitehawks’ quest for the Teck Cup continues on Friday, Mar. 3.
The Nitehawks will open the best-of-seven Murdoch Division finals at the B.V. Arena against the Creston Valley Thundercats.
B.V. eliminated the second-seed Nelson Leafs in six games on Feb. 25 with a 6-3 victory, and Creston, the fifth-seeded crossover team from the Eddie Mountain Division, defeated the number-one seed Grand Forks Border Bruins in five games last week with an 8-5 win.
The Nitehawks split their season series against the Thundercats, with B.V. taking the first match 4-1 at home and the Thundercats the second game in Creston 6-4.
The series is a rematch of last year’s opening round playoff match up, when the Nitehawks beat the Thundercats in seven games to advance to the division final where they lost to Nelson in six.
Nitehawks coach Terry Jones says he knows what to expect from the Thundercats, and one of the Hawks priorities will be to slow down their top line of Luke Chakrabarti, Reece Nelson, and Blake Anderson.
“We know that Chakrabarti is one heck of a player in our league, and it will take something to shut him down.”
The Nitehawks will rely on solid defensive play, discipline, and good goaltending from Connor Stojan and Nathan Presley in shutting down the Thundercats’ offensive threat.
“They have probably the best line in the league, and they put up a lot of points against Grand Forks,” said Stojan. “As a team we are going to watch some video, and create a game plan for them, but I don’t think it is a challenge we can’t handle.”
In the Eddie Mountain Division, the Fernie Ghostriders upset the Columbia Valley Rockes defeating the number-1 seed 4 games to 2 in the division semifinal. The second seed Kimberley Dynamiters took out the Golden Rockets in five games.
In the Okanagan Conference, the Princeton Posse swept the Summerland Steam, while the North Okanagan Knights knocked off the Osoyoos Coyotes in five games in the Ohlhausen Division semifinal.
In the Doug Birks Division, the Sicamous Eagles beat the Kamloops Storm in seven, while the number-1 seed Revelstoke Grizzlies took four straight from the 100-Mile House Wranglers.
The puck drops on Game 1 of the Murdoch Division final at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Mar. 3 at the B.V. Arena, and the same time and place for Game 2 on Saturday, Mar. 4.
The series will then move to Creston for Games 3 and 4 at the Johnny Bucyk Memorial Arena on Tuesday, Mar. 7 and Wednesday, Mar. 8 with the puck drop at 8:30 p.m. PT.