The Beaver Valley Nitehawks earned some breathing room atop the Neil Murdoch Division standings with a sweep of the Castlegar Rebels on the weekend.
Beaver Valley eked out a 3-2 victory in Castlegar on Friday and doubled up the Rebels 4-2 on Saturday at the Hawks Nest giving them a three-point lead over the Nelson Leafs in the Murdoch division.
Special teams were key in Saturday’s victory, with Hawks scoring three shorthanded goals and a power play goal in the 4-2 win.
After a scoreless first period, Hawks forward Zach Park opened the scoring with a breakaway shorthanded goal 31 seconds into the second period, and 46 seconds later Ethan Jang made it 2-0 with another shorty on a partial break.
Castlegar’s Darby Berg made it 2-1 scoring a power play goal at 12:44. However, Bradley Ross tallied the game winner on a Nitehawks power play at 10:31.
Former Nitehawks Mason Hartman brought the Rebels to within one, on a shorthanded marker at 13:47 of the third.
But Ross iced the game scoring his 25th of the season, on (you guessed it) a shorthanded goal with seven minutes remaining in regulation. Ross’ 25th goal and 49th point exceeds his total output (27-21-48) from last season, as the Trail minor hockey product remains in second place in the KIJHL scoring race.
B.V. outshot the Rebels 32-29, going 1-for-6 on the power play and 7-for-8 on the penalty kill.
In Friday’s game, Ross rose to the occasion scoring in the 4-on-4 overtime to lift the Hawks to a 3-2 victory.
Jared Stocks gave B.V. a 1-0 lead, but Jaedon Little tied in the second and the Rebels Josh Wiens put the home team up 2-1 early with just over seven minutes remaining in the final frame.
The Nitehawks pressed and Simon Nemethy tied the game with 2:41 remaining to force the extra frame.
Beaver Valley breaks for the holidays and returns to action on Dec. 30 with a home game against the Grand Forks Border Bruins.
