The Beaver Valley Nitehawks dominated the Golden Rockets at the Hawks Nest on Sunday, but came away on the losing end of a 4-3 final.
With a 5-3 victory over the Castlegar Rebels Saturday, the Nitehawks had gone 5-0-1-0 in its past six games, and came out just as determined versus Golden.
Hawks defenceman Jesse Ihas opened the scoring with five minutes left in the opening frame to go up 1-0, but Golden answered back with Connor Funke scoring his seventh of the season on a power play three minutes later.
Despite being outshot 20-6 in the middle frame, Golden took a 3-1 lead on goals from Will Vernon and Henry Loewen in the second period.
Vernon then notched the game winner and his 14th of the season 4:15 into the final frame to make it 4-1 Rockets.
B.V. battled back with a goal from Hayden Stocks at 7:38 and a late marker by Austin McKenzie, but that is as close as the Hawks would get.
Rockets goalie Levi Hall stopped 55 of 58 shots on the night, while B.V. goalie Owen Albers faced 15 shots. Golden went 1-for-4 on the power play, and the Nitehawks 1-for-7.
The win brings Golden’s record to 11-22-2-0, good for fifth place in the Eddie Mountain Division.
In Saturday’s match against the Rebels, the Nitehawks jumped out to a 3-1 first period lead on goals from Isaak Knight, McKenzie, and Brennan Wilson on their way to their 18th victory.
The Rebels tied it up at three midway through the second period, but Hayden Stocks notched the game winner with just under seven minutes to play in the middle frame.
Hunter Burgeson rounded out the scoring with an empty netter with just over a minute to play.
B.V. outshot the Rebels 35-25 in another physical match up between the Neil Murdoch Division rivals.
The 18-15-2-0 Nitehawks face the top team in the division, Nelson Leafs, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Beaver Valley Arena, then travel to Nelson to play the Leafs on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The 25-9-0-1 Leafs have gone undefeated in the month of January, winning eight straight dating back to Dec. 31 when they lost 2-1 to the Nitehawks.
Read: KIJHL: Nitehawks dominate Border Bruins
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