The Beaver Valley Nitehawks found their offence on Tuesday with a 7-4 win over the Nelson Leafs at the Hawks Nest.
Nitehawks forward Nathan Dominici netted a hat track and an assist, and Ollie Clement had a goal and three assists for a pair of four-point nights in their first match against the Leafs since the Dec. 31 debacle.
Boris Hristov scored the game winning goal 4:40 into the second period on assists from Kaleb Percival and Dominici to give the Hawks a 5-2 lead.
The Nitehawks scored just two goals in regulation in a 2-1 shootout win over North Okanagan and a 3-1 loss to Fernie on the weekend. The convincing win pulls B.V. into a tie for second place with Nelson in the Neil Murdoch standings, with two games in hand, and a season series 4-3 edge.
Nelson opened the scoring on the power play with Ryan Quast beating B.V. goalie Connor Stojan for a 1-0 lead 3:25 into the first period.
However, 23 seconds later Dominici tallied his first of the night scoring a shorthanded goal to tie it.
An extra two minutes was given to Nitehawks Ethan Grishin after misconducts were handed out to him and Nelson’s Reid Volcano. But B.V. rallied and scored twice while shorthanded with goals from Clement and Gavin Tritt coming 22 seconds apart late in the period for a 3-1 lead.
Dominici made it 4-1 just 29 seconds into the second period, but Nelson’s Bennett Anklewich tallied his eighth of the season a minute later.
After Hristov’s game winner, the Leafs pulled goalie Frederick Larochelle in favour of Jasper Tate.
The players responded. Five minutes into the middle frame, Seamus Boyd made it 5-3, and Crae Dawson cut the lead to one with 4:40 left.
But Nitehawks defenceman Jake Maniago tallied the insurance marker 2:51 into the final frame, in a thrilling back and forth battle in the final 20 minutes.
Dominici completed the hat trick tallying his 22nd goal of the season into an empty Leafs net with 1:43 remaining in regulation for the 7-4 final.
B.V. outshot Nelson 45-42, and went 0-for-1 on the power play, and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Nitehawks improve their record to 20-13-1-2 in a tight Murdoch Division race. B.V. sits just three points behind the division leading Grand Forks Border Bruins, 22-12-1-1, with eight games to play in the regular season.
B.V. hosts the Columbia Valley Rockies at the Nest at 7 p.m. on Friday, then travel to Grand Forks Saturday, and are in Castlegar for a tilt against the Rebels on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.