The Beaver Valley Nitehawks are one win away from wrapping up another division title after taking 2-of-3 on the road on the weekend.
B.V. dropped their opening game 5-1 to the Osoyoos Coyotes Friday, before rebounding with a convincing 10-1 blowout of the Princeton Posse Saturday, and a 4-3 victory over the Summerland Steam Sunday.
However, the Hawks suffered a major loss a week ago, and will be without their top scorer Braden Fuller for the rest of the season. The 20-year-old forward took a brutal hit to the head against Kimberley last weekend and sustained a concussion that essentially ended his junior hockey career.
The Hawks were able to sign Calgary native Keillan Olson who played 34 games with the Okotoks Oilers of the Alberta Junior Hockey League this year. Olson has two goals and five points in three games with the Hawks including the opening goal in B.V.’s 4-3 win Sunday.
The Nitehawks jumped out to a 4-1 first period lead on goals from Olson, Jake Yuris, Devin Nemes and Dylan Heppler, then held on as the Steam charged back in the third, with goals from Whitehorse native Jarrett Malchow and former Trail Smoke Eater Paulsen Lautard.
Tallon Kramer stopped 27 shots for the win, as Beaver Valley extended its lead over Castlegar by seven points, but the Rebels have two games in hand, and four games remaining in the season including one against B.V. in what will be the Hawks’ final home game of the regular season on Saturday.
Nemes picked up a hat trick and added two assists for a five-point game against Princeton Posse Saturday night, while Olson and Tyler Ghiradosi had four-point games in the 10-1 thrashing of a Posse team mired in last place in the Okanagan division. Also scoring for B.V. were Jace Weegar, Blake Sidoni, and Sam Swanson, while McKoy Hauk had three assists and Brett Clark picked up the win in net stopping 21 shots.
In Friday’s match, the Coyotes jumped out to a 3-0 lead on their way to the 5-1 victory over the Nitehawks. Former Nelson Leaf Brett Soles earned his 21st victory in net for the Okanagan division leading Coyotes stopping 21 shots on the night, while Kramer faced 41 shots in goal for B.V.
The league leading scorer, Rainer Glimpel, scored twice and added an assist for Osoyoos as did Bobby LaRue, and Jackson Glimpel netted the other Yotes’ marker. Hauk replied for B.V.
The Nitehawks final two games of the regular season go Friday against the Fernie Ghostriders at 7:30 p.m. at the Hawks Nest, and versus the Rebels from Castlegar at the same time and place on Saturday.
