Special teams seals the deal for the Hawks as Beaver Valley steals road win with 5-2 victory in Game four of Murdoch Final
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Beaver Valley Nitehawks registered its second playoff road victory and took a stranglehold on the Neil Murdoch Final with a 5-2 victory over the Castlegar Rebels Saturday at the Community Complex Arena.
Craig Martin scored twice to give the Hawks a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Conference semi final.
Beaver Valley can eliminate the defending Kootenay Conference champs Monday when the team hook up for Game five at the Fruitvale Arena.
Castlegar climbed back into the series Friday by edging the Hawks 3-2.
Special teams was the story of this game as Beaver Valley scored three times on the power play.
Nick Perez added to the special teams nightmare for Castlegar netting a shorthanded marker in the second period.
Diego Bartlett gave Castlegar a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the game before Martin answered for the visitors late in the period.
Martin and Perez put the Hawks in the lead for good with two second-period goals.
Braydon Horcoff cut the margin to a single goal in the third.
But Arie Postmus restored the two-goal margin four minutes later to ice the game.
Ryan Edwards, with two points in the contest, completed the scoring for Beaver Valley.
Postmus finished the game with three points along with teammate Chris Derochie.
Beaver Valley out shot the Rebels 37-25, including a 10-5 margin in the third period to stymie the Castlegar offence.
Zack Perehudoff out dueled Jordan Gluck in battle of the netminders to register the win for Beaver Valley.
PLAYOFF NOTES: The two-goal performance by Craig Martin gave the Murdoch rookie-of-the-year four in the series. The 16-year-old sniper has 10 goals in the playoffs. He scored 48 times in 50 regular season games this season. . . .In Kimberley Jeremy Mousseau stopped all 28 shots to lead the Dynamiters past the Ghostriders 3-0. The Eddie Mountain Final is tied 2-2 with Game five Monday in Fernie. . . . The Kelowna Chiefs went up 3-1 in the series against Princeton with a 5-2 win Saturday. Shayne Welker had three points to lead the Chiefs. Game five is Monday in Princeton.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
