The Beaver Valley Nitehawks seem to improve with every game and recent additions to their lineup should help even more.
Goaltender Mike Vlanich and forward Dallas Calvin returned to the squad last week; Vlanich, after being released from the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers and Trail Smoke Eaters, and, Calvin, after a short stint with the Smokies.
“We never would have thought that this would have happened, we were still trying to round out our roster and within a few weeks we had an abundance of players come in and had to make some tough decisions,” said Nitehawks’ assistant coach Jeremy Cominotto.
The Nitehawks recouped the services of six-foot-four forward Dallas Calvin when he left the Smokies after taking a seat in the stands during their second game of the season, a 5-1 loss to the Westside Warriors. Ironically, Calvin left the Kamloops Blazers camp and joined Trail in order to get more playing time.
“We were very surprised to get Dallas back. We knew he was headed back to Trail and we questioned what was going to happen once he was a healthy scratch,” added Cominotto.
The team didn’t waste any time inserting the two into the lineup as they helped the Nitehawks cruise to a 6-2 win Friday over last year’s Okanagan Division champs, the Osoyoos Coyotes, and an 11-3 drubbing of the Grand Forks Border Bruins on Saturday.
“Calvin is a guy that wants to play every game . We expect big things from Dallas, he was one of the top players in the league last year so we expect nothing less than that.”
In Friday’s contest, Calvin picked up an assist and Vlanich stopped 18 of 20 shots and was named third star of the game. But it was the two 16-year olds that really shone.
Scott Davidson and Craig Martin were named the game’s first and second star respectively against the Coyotes, each scoring a goal and adding two assists in the win.
“The young guys just push the older guys to perform better – the 16-year-olds doing what they’re doing is just unheard of; they do the little things right and they’re just good players,” said Cominotto.
The Nitehawks scored three power play goals in the first period to pace them to the win Friday. Davidson started off the scoring after a set up from Brantley Schapansky and Christian Johnson. Chris Derochie scored his first goal of the evening at the six minute mark and Craig Martin scored his seventh of the year with 21 seconds remaining in the first.
After exchanging goals in the second the Nitehawks would put the game to bed in the third as both Derochie and Justin Niminiken tallied their second goals of the game. Ryan Edwards also had two assists.
In Saturday’s game against the Border Bruins, Calvin added a goal and two assists while Edwards picked up two goals and an assist and leads the team in scoring, 9-10-19, while Derochie added three assists and Martin a goal and an assist. Both Derochie and Martin have identical 7-11-18 marks and sit in second in team scoring followed by Davidson who added two assists in the game, 4-6-10.
The Nitehawks fired 46 shots at Grand Forks goalie and Montrose native Jeremy Mandoli while Travis Beekhuizen stopped 27 of 30 shots for Beaver Valley.