The Nelson Junior Leafs continue to own the Beaver Valley Nitehawks after a wild come-from-behind victory in Fruitvale on Tuesday night.
In the last couple of weeks, the Leafs have pummeled their Neil Murdoch Division rivals by scores of 10-3 and 12-0. On Tuesday night, the feisty Nitehawks were not about to let it happen again.
The Nitehawks came out strong in the first period and scored a pair of goals on Nelson starter Cody Boeckman by the midway point of the opening frame. But in a three second span with eight minutes left in the period, captain Colton Schell and Bryce Nielsen scored to notch the score at twos.
With just over two minutes left in the wild first period, Kurt Black scored to give the home side the 3-2 lead. Then with one second remaining in the period, Black completed his hat trick to send the teams into the dressing room with Beaver Valley leading 4-2.
The Nitehawks outshot the Leafs 14-8 in the first 20 minutes.
The Leafs stormed back in the second period with Aaron Dunlap and Schell tying the score in the late stages of the period. But once again the Nitehawks responded late — with 1:08 on the clock — to head into the break with a lead.
Five minutes into the final period, Schell completed his hat trick on the powerplay when he scored on Zach Perehudoff to tie the score once again. Five minutes after that Danny Vlanich returned the favour with a powerplay marker of his own to put the Nitehawks up 6-5.
With just over eight minutes left in the third, Dunlap scored his second of the game on the powerplay to tie the score. Then with just under two minutes left in the period, Leafs rookie Colton McCarthy notched the game winner.
The Nitehawks once again outshot the Leafs in the final period 16-11.
The win was the Leafs tenth in a row and put them alone atop the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League standings. The locals now hit the road for a three-game East Kootenay roadtrip on the weekend where they will take on Golden, Columbia Valley and Kimberley.
