The Beaver Valley Nitehawks opened their East Kootenay road trip in Golden on a winning note, but forgot to show up in Invermere.
The Nitehawks skated to a 4-1 victory over the Golden Rockets on Friday, but were beaten badly by the Columbia Valley Rockies on Saturday, 7-1.
In Friday’s match the Hawks and Rockets traded power play goals in the first period with Rockets Colton Hutchinson opening the scoring at 18:21.
B.V.’s Nolan Corrado netted his second goal since coming to the Nitehawks at the trade deadline, on a setup from Brad Ross and Nate Ingram, as the teams played wide open hockey in the opening frame with Golden outshooting B.V. 14-12.
The Nitehawks erupted for three second-period goals with Brock Wallace scoring the game winner for B.V. at 16:25 with the assist to John Usselman. Just 63 seconds later, Ussleman made it 3-1, scoring his third as a Nitehawk and eighth of the season.
Edmonton product Jared Stocks cashed in his 13th goal and 28th point on a shorthanded effort with 29 seconds left in the middle frame for a 4-1 lead.
B.V. goalie Hunter Young did the rest stopping 37 of 38 shots for the win, while the Hawks fired 34 shots at the Golden net. B.V. went 1-for-5 on the power play and 8-for-9 on the penalty kill.
In Saturday’s match, the Rockies jumped out to a 4-0 first period lead and never looked back. Young got the start against his former team but was chased from the crease after Kyle Lawrence made it 4-0 at the 3:27 mark of the first.
Corrado notched his third goal in the second period, but the Rockies netted three more in the third for the 7-1 final. Seven different scorers accounted for the C.V. goals, and Bretton Park stopped 28 shots for the win.
The split combined with two wins from the Nelson Leafs on the weekend leaves the two teams tied for first place in the Neil Murdoch Division standings, however, the Nitehawk have three games in hand. The Leafs defeated the Spokane Braves 5-3 on Friday, then rolled over the Osoyoos Coyotes 7-1, Saturday.
Beaver Valley is back in action on Tuesday night when they host the Castlegar Rebels at the Hawks Nest.