After a thrilling 3-2 overtime win over the Nelson Leafs on Friday at the Hawks Nest, the Beaver Valley Nitehawks were grounded by the Creston Valley Thundercats on Saturday in Creston.
Beaver Valley outplayed the Thundercats but came out on the losing side of a 6-4 final. Creston was led by Luke Chakrabarti who had a six point night with two goals and four assists.
The White Rock native set up Blake Anderson for the game winner on the power play at 16:50 of the third period.
The win is the third straight for Creston and improves their record to 14-13-1-1. They currently sit in fifth place in the Eddie Murdoch Division.
The loss for B.V. is another missed opportunity to move into second place in the Neil Murdoch Division standings. The 15-10-0-2 Nitehawks are in third place one point back of Nelson, and trail the division leading Grand Forks Border Bruins by six points. Nelson lost it’s seventh straight game in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Osoyoos Coyotes on Saturday.
The teams traded goals in the first period with Eithan Grishin scoring his fourth of the season for the Hawks. Anderson made it 2-1 Creston, but Hawks d-man Gabriel Chanut tied it at two, 2:20 into the second period.
Goals from Chakrabarti and Stavros Koutsantonis put the home side up 4-2 heading to the third.
After Anderson netted Creston’s fifth goal, the Nitehawks battled within one on a pair of power play goals from Nathan Dominici and Kaleb Percival.
However, an insurance marker by Chakrabarti midway through the period made it a 6-4 final.
Beaver Valley outshot Creston 41-29 and went 3-for-9 on the power play, while Creston went 2-for-6.
In Friday’s match in B.V., the Nitehawks rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie it in the third period and force overtime against the Nelson Leafs.
Boris Hristov scored 4:18 into the final frame to bring the Hawks within one, and Nathan Dominici tied it up with just over five minutes remaining on a power play goal.
A hooking penalty to the Leafs Seamus Boyd 22 seconds into the overtime period, gave the Nitehawks a prime opportunity. Dominici capitalized, scoring on a set up from Ollie Clement and Kaleb Percival for the 3-2 victory.
Connor Stojan earned the win in the Nitehawks net stopping 31 shots, while Frederick Larochelle made 29 saves in the Leafs goal.
The Nitehawks return to the ice on Dec. 29 when they host the Castlegar Rebels at 7 p.m. at the B.V. Arena.