The Beaver Valley Nitehawks wanted a win over the Nelson Leafs so bad they could taste it.
The Hawks are winless against the Leafs this year, and they did everything to earn the two points but score in overtime as the Hawks were forced to settle for a 4-4 draw against the Neil Murdoch Division leaders on Saturday at the Beaver Valley Arena.
The Nitehawks matched the Leafs goal-for-goal, and went ahead 4-3 on a Ryan Crisalli tally with five minutes left in the second period. Michael Hagen lofted the puck from centre ice over the Leafs defenceman and Crisalli broke in, settled the bouncing puck, and fired a shot on net. Leafs goalie Hunter Young stopped the shot initially, but the Leafs defenceman pushed Crisalli into the goalie, and the puck popped loose and into the net.
B.V. neutralized the Leafs offence for the first half of the third period, buts a breakdown in the Hawks end allowed Michael LeNoury to step into a rebound off a blocked shot and beat Hawks goalie Saran Virdee high blocker to even the game at 4-4.
The Nitehawks carried the play in two extra overtime periods but couldn’t beat the Leafs goalie, who stymied the Hawks on two breakaways, and was in position to stop Bradley Ross all alone in front.
Virdee also stood tall in the extra frames, making back-to-back saves off LeNoury and Castlegar native Shawn Campbell to keep the Hawks hopes alive, then outlasted a flurry of action in the final two minutes of the 3-on-3 to preserve the point.
The tie gives B.V. a three-point weekend, following a 6-4 victory over the Creston Valley Thunder Cats on Friday. The Hawks had lost three straight matches, two against division rival Grand Forks and one versus Nelson, before getting back on track.
Campbell opened the scoring for the Leafs 76 seconds into the match, taking a pass from Kaleb Comishin and wiring it past Virdee for a 1-0 lead.
However, the Hawks answered at 4:24 when Hagen made a nice move in the slot, then fed Crisalli at the left post to tie it. But Nelson’s Easton Jolie put the Leafs back up front finishing a 2-on-1 with Emery Nielson with 1:42 remaining in the opening period. But the Nitehawks didn’t go into the middle frame trailing, rather Kevin Duguid found Jared Stocks in the slot and the Edmonton product went top shelf to tie it at 2-2 with a minute left, and the Nitehawks holding a 10-6 edge in shots.
Ross put the Nitehawks up just over two minutes into the second period, taking a pass down low from Simon Nemethy and roofing it from a sharp angle over the shoulder of Young.
Leafs d-man Nicholas Onofrychuk notched his second in his 11th game with Nelson to tie it at 3-3 midway through the period, before Crisalli scored his second of the night for Beaver Valley giving the home team a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.
The tie leaves the 19-14-3-2 Hawks well back of the 27-9-2-0 Leafs and with just 11 games remaining in the regular season schedule, B.V. will try to get on a roll heading into the real playoffs.
The Nitehawks return to action on Saturday when they host the Golden Rockets at the B.V. Arena at 7:30 p.m.
