After collecting a pair of one-goal victories in Kamloops, the Valley West Hawks go into a holiday break in third place in the BC Hockey Major Midget League.
The Surrey/North Delta team of 15-17 year-olds edged the Thompson Blazers 3-2 Saturday night, then trimmed the Kamloops-based squad 2-1 Sunday morning.
At 15-6-1-2 (win-loss-tied-overtime loss), the Hawks are tied with the Vancouver Northeast chiefs for third place, but have played two more games. They are three points up on the fifth-place Fraser Valley Thunderbirds.
The top eight teams in the 11-team circuit make the playoffs.
The Blazers scored the first and last goals of the game Saturday, but Valley West tallied three times in between. Bryce Anderson tied the game 1-1 midway through the first period, Bobby Russell put the Hawks ahead 15 minutes into the second period, then Anderson netted the eventual game-winning goal two minutes later to give the visitors a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Thompson pulled to within a goal with 17 minutes to play, but the Valley West defense held the lead the rest of the way.
Carson Franklin picked up a pair of assists for Valley West.
In Sunday’s game, the Blazers again scored first, taking a 1-0 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first period.
Tyler Ho tied the game for Valley West in the second frame, then assisted on the winning goal by Nolan Krogfoss seven minutes into the third period.
The Hawks will resume play Jan. 7-8 with two home games against the first-place Cariboo Cougars. The Prince George-based Cougars are running away from the pack with a 21-2-1-0 record. One of their losses came in early October when the Hawks were in Prince George. Valley West thumped the Cougars 8-0 in the first of two games.
Cariboo won the second 4-3.
