The race in the standings continue between the Rebels, the Nitehawks and the Border Bruins but after a weekend of gamesthe Nitehawks continue to dominate over the Rebels and the Rebels continue to outplay the Border Bruins.
Friday, Jan. 15 saw the Rebels travel to Beaver Valley for a game in front of the Nitehawks’ hometown fans. The BeaverValley team did not disappoint the crowd. They scored two goals, 16 seconds apart, eight minutes into the game. TheNitehawks’ line that included Tyler Ghiradosi and Braden Fuller scored both goals.
Tayden Woods then scored for the Rebels with eight minutes left in the first period, assisted by Carson Wornig and ChrisBreese. However, the Nitehawks scored again with only 2:39 left in the period to give the Nitehawks a tidy 3-1 lead.
Beaver Valley started the second period with a goal by Jace Weeger assisted by Tyler Ghiradosi and Devin Ghiradosi with18:32 showing on the clock. The Rebels fought back and on a power play opportunity; Daniel Petten sank one for the Rebelsassisted by Tayden Woods and Carson Wornig at 13:13.
The Nitehawks were stacking up the penalties with a total of 16 minutes of penalty time for the second period alone. Thisgave the Rebels at one point a two-man advantage, which they did not capitalize on. But they were able to score again onanother power play with five minutes left in the second with a goal by Ed Lindsey, assisted by Daniel Petten. Lindsey had letloose a powerful snap shot which beat the Nitehawks goalie Tallon Kramer.
The Nitehawks also scored another goal on a power play at 7:36 left in the second period. With both teams scoring twice inthe second period, the Nitehawks continued to have a two-goal lead over the Rebels. A sixth goal by the Beaver Valley teamat 13:34 in the third period by Dylan Heppler, assisted by Blake Sidoni and Nolan Percival, saw the Nitehawks lead stretch tothree.
The score remained 6-3 for the remainder of the game. The Rebels had 37 shots on net; only four less than the Nitehawks41 shots on the Rebels net. The Beaver Valley team had made more of those shots count. The Rebels were without both oftheir high goal getters: Nick Hendrick and Mike Bhatoa who were recovering from minor injuries.
Although the Nitehawks had fairly trounced the Rebels, Nitehawks head coach Terry Jones was not very content with histeam’s performance. “Our lack of discipline was in direct correlation to them being in the game right to the very end.” Headded, “They have a very good power play and a lot of good offensive players and if we’re going to continue to beundisciplined its going to be tight.”
Rebels head coach Jesse Dorrans was not happy with the Rebels defensive support of goalie Logan Sawka. “We gave himzero support.” He also stated, “We had lots of shots but no second and third opportunities.” Dorrans added, “When youcontinually turn pucks over in the neutral zone and offensive blueline, you are probably going to give up a lot of odd manrushes.”
The Beaver Valley game may not have been a winner for the Rebels, but two days later they were back in winning formagainst the Grand Forks Border Bruins achieving a 5-4 victory in overtime.
The Rebels next home games are this weekend Jan. 22 and Jan. 23 with the Creston Valley Thunder Cats on Friday and theNelson Leafs on Saturday. Both games start at 7 p.m.
Come on out Castlegar and support your team!
