Beaver Valley forward Kevin Unruh tallied a hat trick in his first game as a Nitehawk to lift the home team to a 6-3 come from behind victory over the Osoyoos Coyotes on Saturday.
A slow start saw the Coyotes outshoot the Hawks 13-9 in the first period, and jump out to a 2-0 lead. The Nitehawks began their comeback, with Fruitvale product Austin McKenzie scoring eight minutes into the second period to cut the Osoyoos lead to 2-1.
Unruh tied it with five minutes to play in the middle frame and Ethan Grishin netted a power play goal to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead with 62 seconds left.
Osoyoos came out and tied it early in the third on a goal from Kieran Christianson, but Jeremy Hanson finished a set up from Beau Manegre and Spencer Dixon-Reusz for the game winning goal 3:31 into the final frame.
Unruh, the Fort St. John product, then tallied his second of the night at 8:22 on a power play and completed the hat trick with just three minutes to play on another set up from Manegre.
Manegre, a Mayerthorpe, Alta. native, had a three point night for B.V. with three assists in his first KIJHL game.
Nathan Presley also won his first game in net for the Hawks, as Beaver Valley outshot Osoyoos 41-29, went 2-for-4 on the power play and a perfect 4-for-4 on the PK.
The Nitehawks will play Grand Forks at the Hawks Nest on Tuesday. The Border Bruins beat the North Okanagan Knights 6-5 in its opening match on Friday and fell to the Nelson Leafs 4-2 on Saturday.
Grand Forks led 2-0 until the Leafs rallied for three goals and an empty netter in the final frame for the win.
The Bruins biggest asset is between the pipes with Ethan Shebansky, an 18-year-old Edmonton product. Shebansky allowed just three goals on 50 shots faced against Nelson on Saturday.
The puck drop against the Bruins is at 7 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena. B.V. then travels to Castlegar for a match against the Rebels on Thursday.