The Beaver Valley Nitehawks forward Kurt Black has become a dangerous offensive threat night in and night out. The 17-year-old counted his third hat trick of the season against the Columbia Valley Rockies Saturday to lead the Hawks to a 5-3 victory.
Like they have done so often this season, after dropping a 5-1 decision to the Golden Rockets on Friday, the Hawks did an about face on Saturday in Invermere.
Kurt Black netted the winner at 7:21 of the first period to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead, as Beaver Valley netted three goals in a span of 55 seconds, with Nick Perez opening the scoring at 8:16, before Connor Brown-Maloski converted a Russell Mortlock pass to make it 2-0, and Black counted his just 22 seconds later.
Columbia Valley got on the board on the power play when Ryan Henderson beat Hawks starter Travis Beekhuizen to make it 3-1 going into the second.
But Black would add two more for the natural hat trick, to put the Hawks up 5-1 heading into the final frame. Beekhuizen was solid between the pipes stopping 33 of 36 shots for the victory.
The Hawks plagued by inconsistency, dropped a 5-1 decision to Golden Friday, going 0-for-5 on the power play, and having a tough time solving Golden goalie James Leonard who stopped 25 of 26 shots for the victory.
Brown-Maloski put the Hawks on the board first finishing a nice set up from Dallas Calvin at 15:42 of the first period, but it was all Golden after that as they fired 38 shots at Zach Perehudoff, and went 2-for-5 on the power play for the victory. Blake Roney and Jake Bergeron each had three-point nights for the Rockets.
The Nitehawks host Spokane Braves on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena, before heading to the Okanagan on the weekend for three games against the Kamloops Storm Friday, Chase Heat Saturday, and Revelstoke Grizzlies on Sunday.