After disposing of the Nelson Leafs in five games, The Rebels were back on the ice in round two against league leading Beaver Valley Fruitvale.
The pace was frantic, the hitting punishing, as both teams played a tight, physical game, but when the final whistle blew it was the Nitehawks that emerged with a 4-1 victory.
"I thought we played okay. We had some breakdowns in the D zone and weren't really able to sustain pressure on Beaver Valley in the offensive zone," said Rebel head coach Steve Junker. "I thought we were able to put more pressure on in the second period and took the play over in the second, but then they were able to neutralize that in the third. They got the go ahead goal, and then maybe an unfortunate one to go up 3-1. We just weren't able to generate enough pressure there to be a threat to come back."
The teams were tied at 1-1 after two periods with Brantley Schapansky scoring for BV and captain Erik Alden scoring for the Rebs.
It didn't take long for the Hawks to get what proved to be the winner a minute into the final frame. With a Castlegar defenceman draped all over him, Beaver Valley forward Ryan Edwards managed to hang onto the puck behind the Rebel net until he found an open Craig Martin who snapped it past Rebel goalie Jordan Gluck to make it 2-1.
Martin added another goal for the Hawks at 9:18 of the third. Chris Derochie drifted a shot in from the point, Gluck stopped it but Martin hammered away, finally putting the puck under the down-and-out Rebel goalie to make the score 3-1.
Justin Niminiken scored the final goal of the game into an empty net with 59 seconds left to seal the Hawks victory.
The teams played game two in Beaver Valley Wednesday night (after press deadline) and then return to Castlegar for games three and four on Friday and Saturday.
Junker doesn't anticipate making any changes after the game one loss.
"We need to generate some more pressure on them and take care of our D zone," said Junker. "It's just executing a little bit better in what we've been trying to work on not only all season but leading into this series. Just better execution."