The Beaver Valley Nitehawks swept the Border Bruins in a two game series in Grand Forks on the weekend.
The Nitehawks skated to a 5-2 victory Saturday night, after pulling off a 3-2 shootout win on Friday.
While the Border Bruins are already eliminated from playoffs, their effort versus B.V. in front of a home crowd was decidedly admirable in both games.
B.V. jumped out to a 2-0 lead on first period goals from Hunter Burgeson and Austin McKenzie despite being outshot by the Bruins 14-12 on Saturday.
The Hawks ramped up the tempo in the second and Trail product Nathan Dominici netted a power play goal at 11:39, then scored his second of the night and 13th of the season with 2:48 left in the period.
Gavin Tritt made it 5-0 Hawks on a setup from Calvin Morrison and Ethan Jang three minutes into the final frame.
The Border Bruins were finally rewarded when Ollie Morberg scored on a power play at 4:29, and then added another with seven minutes remaining for the 5-2 final.
Grand Forks outshot B.V. 39-38 but Hawks goalie Kevin Engman was solid in goal earning his 10th win on the season.
B.V. improves to 22-17-2-0 and takes the season series against Grand Forks 7-3-0-0.
On Friday, Border Bruins goalie Justin Dueck almost stole the show again, but Burgeson scored the shootout winner to lift B.V. to a 3-2 victory.
Dueck faced 61 shots on the night, largely because the Bruins were shorthanded for much of the middle frame. Yet the Swift Current product held off the Nitehawks attack through three periods and an OT, before it was decided by Beaver Valley’s second shooter and only scorer, Burgeson.
Credit to Nitehawks goalie Owen Albers who stopped all three Grand Forks shooters and faced 38 shots on the night for his 12th win of the campaign.
Grand Forks opened the scoring at 3:49 of the first period, when Ray Warrack beat Albers for his first of the night.
Joel Smyth tied it for B.V. with his eighth of the season at 3:09, but Warrack notched his second with 1:09 left in a physical second period for a 2-1 Grand Forks lead.
Less than two minutes into the third period, Hawks forward Ethan Smyth scored on a power play, converting a set up from Burgeson to tie it and force an extra frame.
B.V. went 1-for-11 on the power play, while Grand Forks was 0-for-4.
The Nitehawks have one game remaining in the regular season and face the Leafs in Nelson on Friday at 7 p.m.
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