Hawks rebound to capture game seven thriller against Leafs
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
Gavin Currie did his best to make his last game in the Green and White a memorable one.
The Abbotsford native scored twice, but that was not enough as the Nelson Leafs fell 4-2 to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks in game seven of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoff series Wednesday in Fruitvale.
The Hawks now advance to the Murdoch Division final against the Castlegar Rebels. Game one goes Friday in the Sunflower City.
“I thought we skated well, worked hard and got back to our game,” Beaver Valley assistant coach Jeremy Cominotto told The Nelson Daily from the winner’s dressing room following the game-seven victory.
“We have a small rink so we like to get the puck deep, bang and finish checks which forces teams to turn the puck over and that made difference tonight.”
Of course game seven would not have been played had the Hawks not allowed the Leafs to take game six with a 5-4 come-from-behind victory — something that left a bitter taste in the mouths of the players leading up to Wednesday’s game.
“I know I couldn’t sleep at all last night,” Cominotto confessed. “But we took (Tuesday’s) loss as a great learning experience. We felt it was meant to be and the Hockey Gods wanted to see a game seven in a great series so it was pretty easy for our guys to get back on track and refocus for tonight.”
And refocus they did.
Beaver Valley, like the home squad had done for most of the games in Fruitvale, jumped on the Leafs to grab an early 2-0 lead.
Tyler Collins and Colton Donselaar scored six minutes apart, the Collins marker coming on the power play, giving the Hawks early momentum.
However, Currie, playing the entire series with an upper body injury after aggravating a shoulder that was originally injured New Year’s Eve, scored on a Nelson power lay with two minutes left in the opening frame.
Brantley Schapansky restored the two-goal lead before Currie scored his second of the game midway through the second.
In the third Nelson tried to find the equalizer before Ryon Sookro sealed the deal with an empty net marker.
“We felt playing with the lead was huge because throughout the series the team that scored first seemed to win the game,” said Cominotto. “So it was key for us to get back home where we are comfortable and the lead.”
The Hawks, finishing second in the Murdoch behind the regular season champion Rebels, now advance to meet Castlegar beginning Friday in the Sunflower City.
“We expect another tough series,” Cominotto said. “Castlegar is a team that has four good lines. Of late they seem to be getting some good goaltending and is a well rounded team that works very hard.”
Beaver Valley out shot Nelson 33-28 in the game with Michael Vlanich out dueling Marcus Beesley in the Nelson nets.
BLUELINES: Late season acquisition Dustin Johnson, held off the score sheet in game seven, finished with the playoff scoring lead for Nelson with eight points. Gavin Currie was a point behind Johnson but led the team with five goals. Leaf captain Taylor O’Neil, playing his final game in the Green and White, was fourth behind Marcus Dahl with five points. O’Neil finished tied with Colton Schell. . . . Dallas Calvin, on fire early in the series, topped the Beaver Valley scoring with 11 points. Ryon Sookro was next with 10 points including five goals. Daniel Bishop had six goals for the Hawks. . . .Evan J. Moir, thought to be out for the remainder of the season after suffering an upper body injury during the last weekend of the season, played his second game for Nelson Wednesday.
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