Following a defeat against the Beaver Vallery Nitehawks on Saturday, the Castlegar Rebels faced the Nitehawks a second time on Tuesday in Fruitvale, and once again came up short.
Bradley Ross scored the first goal of the game for the Nitehawks late in the first, assisted by Morgan Peace and Jake Yuris, but the Rebels went on a power play shortly after that when Kevan McBean took two minutes for tripping.
Castlegar made the best of the opportunity and Tanner Costa tied things up, assisted by Brady Daniels and Dallas Goodwin.
Neither team managed to find the net in the second, though the Rebels outshot the Nitehawks 16-5.
Then things went bad for the Rebels in the third.
Ren Mason received a game misconduct and two minutes for checking from behind and the Nitehawks’ Evan Gorman scored a power-play goal, assisted by Tommy McConnachie and Peace.
Trying to tie things up in the final minutes of the game, the Rebels pulled goalie Curt Doyle from the net and the Nitehawks’ Aidan Browell scored an empty-netter, assisted by Nolan Percival, with 13 seconds on the clock, winning the game 3-1 for Beaver Valley.
The Rebels are now 3-4 against the Nitehawks for the season and have slipped into second place in the Neil Murdoch Division.
The Rebels are two points behind the Nelson Leafs with 53 points, and the Leafs have played two fewer games.
Castlegar now faces a 10-day break in play and will face off against the Grand Forks Border Bruins in Grand Forks on Friday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.
The Rebels’ next home game is Saturday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. when they will compete against the Fernie Ghostriders.
