The Nelson Junior Leafs played another thriller against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks Saturday night in Fruitvale, but fell just short of a second win against the KIJHL’s top club.
Coming off a huge 7-2 win at home on Friday night against the same Beaver Valley club, the Leafs were looking to finish off the regular season with another.
Nitehawks sniper Craig Martin scored just over eight minutes into the opening period when he notched a goal on the powerplay. Five minutes after that Leafs captain Tyler Parfeniuk scored his first goal of the season on the powerplay to tie the score at 1-1.
The Nitehawks came out strong in the second period scoring two goals on Leafs’ starter Patrick Defoe in the first ten minutes of the middle stanza. Chris Derochie was first and Martin increased the score to 3-1 with his second powerplay goal of the night. With just over six minutes left in the second, Leafs forward Nik Newman cut the lead to one with a powerplay goal of his own.
Early in the third period Brett Norman tied the score at 3-3 and that’s the way it stood at the end of regulation.
With just over a minute left in the first overtime, Ryan Edwards ended the game with his 35 goal of the season.
The Leafs will now have a few days to prepare for the first round of the KIJHL playoffs where they will face the Castlegar Rebels in the first round. Though the date for game one has not been set, the series is expected go get started by at least Friday. The Leafs have scheduled Games 3 and 4 for next Monday and Tuesday night at the NDCC.
