The Beaver Valley Nitehawks continued their winning ways, extending their winning streak to six games on the weekend.
The Hawks beat the Fernie Ghostriders 7-5 on Friday and followed that up with a decisive 6-3 win over the Spokane Braves on Saturday to pull within three points of Murdoch Division leading Nelson Leafs.
The Leafs lost to the Castlegar Rebels 5-3 and Creston Valley Thunder Cats 4-3 and have been a different team since losing leading scorer Ryan Piva, a Trail native, to the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Bradley Ross scored what proved to be the game winner at 14:02 of the second period converting a set up from Angus Amadio and Brock Wallace for a 4-0 Beaver Valley lead.
The win boosts the Nitehawks record to 16-10-2-2 and gives the Hawks an eight point separation over third-place Grand Forks.
Nitehawks defencemen Jesse Ihas and Jake Yuris put the Hawks up 2-0 in the first period and Ryan Crisalli scored his first of two on the night 32 seconds before Ross made it 4-0.
The Braves battled back in the third, with Alex Enegrin scoring just over two minutes into the third, but Crisalli made it 5-1 at 13:06 on a setup from Luke Woodrow and Paul Leroux.
Spokane’s Bear Hughes made it 5-2 midway through the period and a Nate Wilson power-play goal cut the Hawks lead to two with 5:45 to play. An empty netter from Michael Hagen sealed the win for the Hawks.
B.V. outshot the Braves 39-22 and went 1-for-5 on the power play, while Spokane was 1-for-3.
On Friday, the Nitehawks Marty Ingram scored twice in a wide open 7-5 match up against the Ghostriders. B.V. led 1-0 after one on a goal from Amadio, but the treams traded six second period goals to make it 4-3 after two. In the third, Luke Recchi put the Hawks up 5-3 but two goals from Fernie tied it at 5-5. With time winding down Jared Stocks gave the Nitehawks a 6-5 lead, and Hagen scored into an empty net for the 7-5 final.
Fernie outshot B.V. 38-35 and went 3-for-5 on the power play, while the Hawks went 0-for-3.
Beaver Valley is off until after Christmas when they head to Kamloops for the KIJHL Showcase.