By Derek Kaye
Castlegar News contributor
Beaver Valley jumped the gun on Saturday February 15, scoring a three goals in quick succession. This resulted in Castlegar Rebels coach Jesse Dorrans switching goalies. Nitehawk Dallas Calvin, assisted by Ryan Edwards put the first one in at 15:34 and then at 13:32 Ryan Edwards from Dan Holland sunk another one. Less than 30 seconds later another shot by Braden Fuller assisted by Dallas Calvin slipped by Nate Rabbit and at this point he was replaced by teammate Patrick Zubick. But it did not seem to matter who was in net for Castlegar for Braden Fuller as his shot got by Zubick five minutes later, assisted by Blake Sidoni and Sam Swanson.
The second period opened with what Aaron Brewer would later describe as the Castlegar team's "A game,'' and he proved that by putting the Rebels on the scoreboard at 11:19 assisted by Derek Georgopoulos and Diego Bartlett; two teammates who were most definitely hustling as hard they could. But the Nitehawks responded at 7:18 with a shot by Ryan Edwards from Sheldon Hubbard and the Beaver Valley squad was now ahead 5-1.
Scoring in period three opened at 11:19 with the Rebels "A" line, Brewer, Georgopoulos and Bartlett tallying at almost the same time on the clock as their second period goal. The line of Medeiros, Jenerou and Bowerman, not to be outdone, scored on a power play opportunity less than two minutes later. But the Nitehawks stomped on the gas
and scored three more before the end of the game with two from Ryan Edwards at (assisted by Riley Brandt and Dan Holland) and again (assisted by Dan Holland and Lyle Frank) to give Edwards a hat-trick for the night. He scored another point at 5:09, assisting with Walter Sidoni on Beaver Valley's last goal of the night on a shot by Sam Swanson.
Although there was only one penalty in the first period, the second and third saw plenty of roughing and game misconducts. The Rebels' captain finished his shift midway through the third after some exciting boxing action. Teammate Matt Reed had already roughed out of the game during the second period. The Nitehawks Fraser Stang and Riley Brandt represented their team in the boxing club and were given game misconducts as well.
Nitehawks coach Terry jones spoke with the Castlegar News post game. "Pretty good effort for us, really good first period," he said. "We were really skating, we had some good opportunities and we buried the puck when we needed to. Second period sagged a little bit we took our foot off the pedal. The game is mental, you have to keep skating and playing hard. You've got to play your A game to win. It is a tough division, if you don't play your best you are not going to win."
Rebels forward Aaron Brewer who had put two shots in the net, commented, "They obviously have some elite talent over there so you can't be making simple mistakes that we shouldn't be making. It is all about consistency with us. If we have all four lines rolling, everyone going, we can put up with anyone in this league".
On the previous night the Rebels were in Fruitvale at the Beaver Valley Arena, coming out on the wrong end of a 6-3 score. The Nitehawks came out strong in the first period establishing a three goal lead on the Rebels. Jeremy Lucchini scored (Ryan Edwards and Fraser Stang) before Dallas Calvin (Jacob Boyczuk and Taylor Stafford) and Ryan Edwards (Dan Holland) added to the bulge.
In the second period the Rebels took advantage of two power play opportunities early on scoring at 17:12 and 16:33 by Darren Medeiros from Dylan Bowerman and Hunter Jeneroux for the first and the second scored by Connor Beauchemin from Darren Medeiros and Jeremy McNeil. But the Nitehawks responded, widening their lead with two of their own scored by Dallas Calvin from Fraser Stang and Jeremy Lucchini and at 3:20 by Riley Brandt from Ryan Edwards and Dan Holland.
The third period opened with Rebel Captain Kody Disher scoring at 19:05 assisted by Dylan Bowerman and Aaron Petten. However the Rebels were unable to score again while the Nitehawks scored once more with 4:02 left in the game unassisted by Dallas Calvin,to keep the Nitehawks firmly in second place in the Neil Murdoch Division.
The Rebels have one last regular season game in Grand Forks this Friday, Feb 21, before the playoffs begin.