A hot Ghostrider goalie stymied the Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Sunday in a 3-1 loss to Fernie at the B.V. Arena.
The Nitehawks skated to an exciting 2-1 shootout victory over the North Okanagan Knights on Friday night, but couldn’t find the answer to Fernie goalie Aiden Kruhlak, who stopped 45 shots in the Sunday matinee.
Fernie forward Taylor Haggerty scored the game winner with a power play goal with 1:04 to play in the first period. Haggerty was on the doorstep when he banged in a centering pass from Liam Fitzgerald to give the Ghostriders a 2-1 lead.
The Ghostriders also defeated the Castlegar Rebels 2-1 in overtime on Saturday for their fourth win in a row, and a 19-12-5-2 record with six regular season games remaining.
The loss for the 19-13-1-2 Nitehawks coupled with a Nelson Leafs 4-1 win over North Okanagan on Saturday night, leaves the Hawks two points back of the second place Leafs, but with two games in hand.
The Nitehawks Tyson Tokarz opened the scoring 4:03 into the first period, taking a pass from Nathan Dominici and beating Kruhlak short side for a 1-0 lead.
However, the Ghostriders responded midway through the opening frame when Scott Sinclair fired in a rebound off a Jarod Sigouin shot for another power play marker.
Beaver Valley was snake bitten in the second period despite several good scoring chances and Fernie’s Gaege Johnson scored the insurance marker at 9:12 on a screen shot from the point.
The Nitehawks outshot Fernie 15-3 in the third, but struggled on special teams and could not convert despite having three power play opportunities in the final 20 minutes.
B.V. outshot Fernie 46-27, but were 0-for-7 on the power play and 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
In Friday’s match, the Nitehawks Nathan Presley stopped 27 shots including three Knights marksmen in the shootout for a 2-1 victory.
After a 1-1 deadlock through 60 minutes and a five minute 3-on-3 overtime period, Tyson Tokarz continued his stellar play scoring the game winner as the first shooter in the shootout. Tokarz sniped low stick side on North Okanagan goalie Austin Seibel, who faced 48 shots on the night.
Nitehawks forward Ollie Clement tallied his ninth of the season on a set up from Timothy Jozsa and Beau Manegre 6:38 into the first period to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
But Kevin-Thomas Walters tied it for the Knights with 6:54 remaining in the middle frame. Both goalies were unbeatable through the rest of the match and forced the extra frame.
Beaver Valley will host the Nelson Leafs on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the B.V. Arena with the puck drop at 7 p.m.
It’s the Hawks first match against the Leafs since the infamous New Years Eve match where the Nelson coach instigated a brawl to start the second period.
Nelson appointed an interim head coach in Briar McNaney, after head coach Adam DiBella was suspended and resigned following a league investigation.
Leafs leading scorer Joe Davidson and six-foot-seven forward Marko Pavlovic were also traded to the Osoyoos Coyotes.
In Davidson’s and Pavlovic’s Coyotes’ debut against Kelowna Jan. 11, Davidson had two goals and four assists, while Pavlovic had two assists in a 12-1 win.