The Beaver Valley Nitehawks took care of business on the road this weekend.
The Nitehawks defeated the Grand Forks Border Bruins for the first time this season with a 4-1 victory in Grand Forks on Saturday. Their 12th win in 18 games, followed a 5-4 victory over the Creston Valley Thunder Cats on Friday, and puts the Hawks two points back of the Neil Murdoch division leaders, the 13-3-0-3 Nelson Leafs.
Defenceman Brennan Wilson scored his first goal as a Nitehawk, beating goalie Dillon Beebe at 13:03 of the second period for a 2-1 lead. The Grande Prairie native’s unassisted marker stood up as the game winner, and handed the home team its fourth straight loss.
Beaver Valley opened the scoring at 15:57 of the first period, when Quaid Anderson stepped into a setup from Jared Stocks and Ethan Jang.
The Bruins leading scorer Elvis Slack tied the game on a power play goal at 14:35 of the second period for his 14th goal. Just over a minute later, Wilson put the Hawks up for good, and Luke Woodrow and Simon Nemethy tallied some insurance markers in the final frame for the 4-1 victory.
Saran Virdee earned the win and the game star nod for B.V. stopping 21 shots, while the Hawks fired 29 at Beebe in the Grand Forks net.
On Friday, the Nitehawks scored three third period goals on their way to a close 5-4 victory over the Thunder Cats in Creston.
Beaver Valley jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Marcus McEachern goal 67 seconds into the first period. But Creston replied, Kyle James scoring a power play goal at 17:04 to draw even with the Hawks.
Beaver Valley owned the second period outshooting Creston 22-6, but came away deadlocked at 2-2. Benjamin Kruse tallied his third of the season to give the Thunder Cats a temporary 2-1 lead at 11:48.
B.V.’s Nathan Ingram popped in his second of the campaign converting a set up from Luke Woodrow on the power play to tie it at 2-2 with 1:25 to play in the second.
Things got heated at the end of the second when Creston’s Tyler Hamilton was given a double minor for spearing. The Nitehawks responded with Bradley Ross and Jesse Ihas scoring on the power play to take a 4-2 lead with 17:34 remaining. Trail Thompson brought the Cats to within one beating B.V. goalie Kevin Engman with another power play goal, but Ross put the Nitehawks up 5-3 on a nice passing play with Angus Amadio and Brock Wallace.
Ross’ second goal gives the Trail native 15 on the season and 32 points, good for third in the KI overall.
Creston’s Josh Dalquist scored with 3:16 to play to cut the lead to one, but no more damage was done, as Beaver Valley held on for the win.
Beaver Valley outshot Creston 40-25 and went 3-for-6 on the power play, while Creston was 2-for-6. Ross earned player of the game, and another Trail native, Derek Green, was named Home Star for the Cats.
B.V. next plays Neil Murdoch division rival Spokane Braves on Tuesday at the B.V. Arena. The 11-9-0-2 Braves sit in third place in the division and the game will be the first meeting of the two teams this season. Spokane is coming off a huge 6-2 victory over the Nelson Leafs on Friday. The win put an end to the Leafs 12-game winning streak.
The puck drop for Tuesday’s match up goes at 7 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena.