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Beaver Valley looks to wrap us series against Creston Thunder Cats

The Nitehawks beat Creston on Saturday to take a 3-1 series lead in Murdoch Div. semifinal
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The Beaver Valley Nitehawks defeated the Creston Thunder Cats 4-3 on Saturday. Photo: Jim Bailey

The Beaver Valley Nitehawks took a 3-1 series lead in the Neil Murdoch Division semifinal against the Creston Valley Thunder Cats on Saturday.

Edmonton native Hayden Stocks scored the game winner with two minutes remaining in regulation for a 4-3 Nitehawks victory at the Johnny Bucyk Arena in Creston.

The Game 4 win comes a day after a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory on Friday night in Game 3.

Creston took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a short-handed goal from Hassen Himour at 18:13 as the T-Cats outshot B.V. 17-1 in the period.

Beaver Valley regrouped in period two with Brennan Wilson and Ethan Jang scoring less than a minute apart to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.

The lead was shortlived, however, as Himour tied it 11 seconds later to send it into the third deadlocked at 2-2.

Austin McKenzie tallied his third goal of the playoffs midway through the period on a setup from Brennan Wilson and Cooper Ross, but the Thunder Cats tied it with 5:49 left to play.

Unfortunately for Himour, a tripping penalty with 2:12 left to play put the Nitehawks on the power play and Stocks finished a nice play from Cooper Ross for the 4-3 final.

Owen Albers earned his third playoff win in the Beaver Valley net stopping 34 shots on the night while Carlos Siso stopped 25 in the loss. B.V. went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Thunder Cats were 0-for-4.

On Friday night, Joel Smyth tallied the game winner with 4:12 remaining in overtime to give B.V. a 5-4 victory.

B.V. took a 3-1 lead on goals from Ollie Clement, McKenzie and Stocks. But goals from Campbell Mclean and Luke Chakrabarti tied it at 8:16 of the third.

Smyth gave the Nitehawks a 4-3 lead midway through the final frame, by Clayton Brown scored with 2:01 left on the clock to send it to OT.

Creston outshot B.V. 37-23, and went 2-for-10 on the power play and 6-for-7 on the penalty kill.

In the other Murdoch semifinal, the Castlegar Rebels took a 3-1 series lead over the number-1 seed Nelson Leafs with a 3-1 victory on Saturday in Castlegar and 4-2 on Friday.

The series moves to Beaver Valley on Monday with the puck drop at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, if necessary, at 7 p.m.



Jim Bailey

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