Hawks sweep Leafs to tighten up Murdoch Divison race
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Leafs stay in the luxury Murdoch Division penthouse suite officially ended Saturday night.
And if the Green and White don’t right this ship in a hurry the living arrangements will only get worse.
Dan Holland scored twice to lead Beaver Valley to a 5-3 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League victory over the Leafs Saturday night at the NDCC Arena.
The win completes a weekend sweep of the Leafs and lifts the third-place Hawks to within two points of the new division leaders, Castlegar with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
“We’re working real hard and doing the little things right,” said Beaver Valley forward Dallas Calvin from outside the winner’s dressing room.
“We’ve definitely improved from the first couple of times we played them which is coming at a good time.”
Nelson was trying to bounce back from a 5-2 loss Friday in Fruitvale to the Hawks.
The Leafs got the all-important first goal when Aaron Dunlap slammed home a rebound past Jarod Schamerhorn late in the opening frame.
But the Hawks rallied for two goals in the final minutes of the frame — by Holland and Riley Brandt — to grab a 2-1 lead heading into the intermission.
“That’s been one of our problems for a while,” said Nelson’s Linden Horswill.
“Whenever we get scored on we just drop all of a sudden. We have to learn to recover quicker when that happens.”
The Achilles Heel Horswill was referring to raised its ugly head in the second when the Hawks struck for two goals to grab a 4-1 advantage.
The goals came after Nelson squandered a pair of power plays.
Holland, with his second of the night, and Luke Reimer on the power play, staked the visitors to the three-goal lead.
However, Damin Devlin slid a loose puck past Schamerhorn before Carsen Willans drilled a shot into the vacant net to give the home side some life.
That would be as close as the Leafs would get as Connor Brown-Maloski beat Brett Soles from the back of the net to give Beaver Valley at two-goal cushion early in the third period.
“Connor’s third-period goal was huge for us,” Calvin confessed. “It really swayed the momentum our way and allowed us to stay aggressive for the rest of the period.”
Castlegar, thanks to a 5-3 win in Golden Saturday, takes over top spot in the division a single point ahead of Nelson.
Beaver Valley, winners of four straight, sits two points back of the Rebels in third.
Castlegar has a game in hand on both Beaver Valley and Nelson.
“We have to put this weekend behind us and start thinking about next week,” Horswill said when asked how the Leafs overcome its third loss in as many games.
“We’ve got four games remaining and if we win them all then (Beaver Valley) can’t get ahead of us in the standings. So this is a good wake up call for us.”
MURDOCH NOTES: The goal by Carsen Willans was the first in ten games for the Nelson Minor Hockey grad. And it showed by Willans’ Nail Yakupov celebration after he scored. . . . Nelson is on the road for three games — Revelstoke, Sicamous and Castlegar — before returning home February 16 to host the Rebels. . . . Beaver Valley plays Castlegar in a home-and-home series next weekend before concluding the season with two games against Spokane. . . . Travis Wellam and Bryan Lubin each scored twice to lead the Rebels past the Rockets in Golden. Trailing 1-0 in the first, the Rebels scored three straight goals to finish the frame and never looked back.
