The Beaver Valley Nitehawks won an important four points on the weekend to stay in touch with the division leading Castlegar Rebels.
The Hawks beat the Grand Forks Border Bruins 8-2 Saturday, and eked out a 3-2 over-time win Friday night against the Chase Heat to sit one point back of Castlegar in the Neil Murdoch Division after the Rebels doused the Chase Heat 6-1 on Saturday.
Kurt Black had a break out game for the Hawks, netting a hat trick and adding an assist against the Bruins to lead the charge. Ryan Edwards also pitched in with a four point night, two goals and two assists, and Nick Perez continues his torrid pace with a goal and two helpers.
Perez and Edwards lead the team in scoring with 12 points each, while Black moves into third spot with six goals and two assists.
Beaver Valley jumped out into a 4-1 first period lead, and never looked back, as it pumped 44 shots at the Grand Forks goal including 35 in the final two periods for its fifth win of the season.
On Friday, Chase would get all its scoring during an eight-second span at the end of the first period to go up 2-0 on a pair of two-on-ones that left goalie Zach Perehudoff stranded and with little chance.
But the Hawks fought back, when Nick Perez scored from the point five minutes into the second, and Russell Mortlock tied the game with 1:48 to go in the middle frame.
Perehudoff came up big in the third period, as did the Heat’s goalie Jacob Mattes who turned aside 34 of 36 shots in regulation, and stymied the Hawks offence time and time again.
But with a minute to go in the first overtime frame, Dallas Calvin saucered a breakaway pass to a streaking Edwards, who wristed a quick shot by the blocker of Mattes for the OT win. The Nitehawks are back at home on Saturday to host the Kamloops Storm at 7:30 p.m.
