Following a tight 4-4 game against the Spokane Braves Saturday, the Beaver Valley Nitehawks erupted for 15 goals against the Grand Forks Border Bruins Sunday afternoon.
Led by hat tricks from Dallas Calvin and Dan Holland and a six-point match off the stick of Ryan Edwards, the Hawks blasted 51 shots at the Bruins goal en route to a 15-0 Bruins blitzing.
Calvin seized possession of top spot in the KIJHL scoring race with a seven point game, adding four assists to his three goals, to sit two points up on Nelson’s Colton Schell. Calvin was named first star in each of the weekend games and now has 58 points, with 24 goals and 34 assists in just 31 games.
The Trail native started the scoring for the Hawks just 90 seconds into the first period, firing a shot past Bruin starter Dominic Stadnyk after a nice set up from Riley Brandt and Edwards.
Playing on a line with Calvin and Edwards, Brandt also had his biggest night as a Hawk scoring twice and adding three assists.
Beaver Valley took a 3-0 lead heading into the second period on goals from Edwards and Arie Postmus, and would own the play in the second scoring six times with goals from Brandt, Michael Bell, Derek Lashuk, Holland, Edwards, and Calvin chasing Stadnyk from the net midway through the second period.
The team’s passing precision was razor sharp, its defence impenetrable, and attack relentless as it completely overwhelmed Grand Forks. It was a definite improvement from a lacklustre performance against Spokane the previous night, where players just didn’t follow the game plan, says Hawks coach Terry Jones who was in the stands for both games following a suspension last week.
With the tie Friday, the Nitehawks slipped a bit in the standings, as Castlegar won all three of its games this week, and Nelson took both of its tilts. With 10 games remaining the Nitehawks are three points back of both teams with 56 although Castlegar has one game in hand and Nelson two.
The third period was much the same, as Holland scored a pair in the first four minutes followed by markers by Calvin, Danny Vlanich, Walker Sidoni, and Brandt. Newly acquired goaltender Jarrod Schamerhorn started his first game for the Hawks against Grand Forks and looked good in stopping 20 shots for the shutout.
Against Spokane on Saturday, Holland scored twice, and Calvin and Edwards each got one, but a late goal by Spokane’s Justin Bonnano tied the game at four. Two overtime periods solved nothing as the Hawks missed a chance to keep pace in the sprint to the regular season finish of the Neil Murdoch division.
Beaver Valley’s next game is against Spokane at the B.V. Arena at 7:30 p.m. Friday.