The Beaver Valley Nitehawks disposed of the Nelson Leafs in dramatic fashion on Friday night setting the stage for the Neil Murdoch division showdown against the Castlegar Rebels.
After the Hawks won a wild 7-6 affair on Thursday in B.V., they took to the road to play the Leafs in Nelson on Friday for Game 6.
The Leafs led 3-0 heading into the third period but the Nitehawks scored four unanswered goals in the final 15 minutes to end the Leafs playoff run.
Neil Murdoch division MVP Dallas Calvin netted the winner on the power play with seven minutes remaining to crush the Leafs’ hopes. Despite outshooting Nelson 29-18 through two periods, the Hawks found themselves in a hole thanks to goals from Dallon Stoddard, Aaron Dunlap and J. J. Beitel.
Nevertheless, the Hawks continued to pressure in the third and the Murdoch division rookie of the year, Connor Brown-Maloski, would punch one past Leaf starter Marcus Beesley to open the scoring for B.V.
Playoff scoring leader Ryan Edwards would draw the Hawks within one at 9:28 on another Hawk power-play, and power forward Keenan Patershuk evened it 55 seconds later, before Calvin fired home the winner.
The Nitehawks began the series against the Rebels Monday night in Castlegar, but the score was unavailable at press time. Castlegar was one of the hottest teams in the league entering the post season with a 14-2 record since January, and won its opening series against the Spokane Braves four games to one.
The Hawks play Game 2 against the Rebels at the Castlegar Sports Complex at 7:30 p.m. tonight.