After going undefeated in nine straight games, the Beaver Valley Nitehawks lost their third game in a row on the road on Sunday.
Following a grueling stretch of five-games-in-six days, the Nitehawks fell to the Castlegar Rebels 7-4 Sunday, hard on the heels of a 4-2 loss to Kimberley Saturday, and a 7-4 setback to the Nelson Leafs on Thursday. The 25-8-2-2 Hawks maintain top spot in the Neil Murdoch division but the Rebels have moved to within eight points of B.V. with three games in hand, after trailing by 12 points last week.
The Rebels Chris Brese scored the winning goal with seven seconds remaining in the second period to give Castlegar a 5-3 lead and their first win over B.V. this year.
Castlegar opened the scoring at 15:05 when defenceman Carson Wornig netted his first goal of the season beating Drake Poirier in net for the Hawks. Blake Sidoni tied it with 8:36 left on a setup from Evan Gorman and Jaxon Joseph, as the Hawks outshot the Rebels 17-6 in the period. Castlegar turned it on in the second period rippling the twine four times with Tayden Woods, and Ed Lindsey putting the Rebels up 3-1 before the Hawks Tyler Ghiradosi cut the lead to one on the power play. Braden Fuller tied it midway through the period on another power play goal, beating Logan Sawka who was outstanding in net for the Rebels.
But Nick Headrick gave the Rebels the lead for good scoring with 2:38 to go in the middle frame for a 4-3 lead. Brese made it 5-3 before the period was out and Fuller scored his second of the night to make it 5-4, but two goals from Mike Bhatoa in the final three minutes rounded out the scoring for the Rebels.
The Hawks outshot Castlegar 44-28 in the game, and went 3-for-6 on the power play. Beaver Valley plays its next game on Saturday when they host the Nelson Leafs at 7:30 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena.
