Ex-Leaf sinks old team as Boycuzk scores in OT to power Hawks to 3-1 Murdoch series lead
By The Nelson Daily Sports
A former Nelson Leaf player came back to haunt his own teammates.
Jacob Boyczuk scored at the 1:32 mark of the first overtime period to lift the Beaver Valley Nitehawks to a 2-1 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoff victory over the Nelson Leafs Tuesday night in Fruitvale.
The victory gives the Hawks a 3-1 stranglehold in the best-of-seven Murdoch Final.
Game five is set for Thursday night back in the Heritage City. Puck drop is 7 p.m. at the NDCC Arena.
Game four was nothing like the 7-0 pasting Beaver Valley put on the Leafs the night before.
Fact is it was Nelson that took a 1-0 lead early in the second period following a scoreless opening frame.
KIJHL regular season scoring champion Jamie Vlanich gave the Green and White to the lead with a power play marker.
Beaver Valley tied the game with its own power play tally later in the frame as Archie McKinnon scored with assists to Braden Fuller and Dallas Calvin.
In the third Beaver Valley pushed for the winning tally, controlling much of the period out shooting the Leafs 15-9. But Patrick Zubick had a bounce-back game in the Nelson nets after getting pulled 25 minutes into Monday’s Game three.
The hometown Hawks out shot the Leafs 40-36 in the contest making a winner out of Brett Clark.
ICE CHIPS: Ryan Edwards, with an assist on the game winner by Jacob Boyczuk, and Dallas Calvin each tallied a point to add to their playoff point total. Calvin leads the KIJHL playoff scoring with 15 points. Edwards is two points behind in third spot. Nelson’s Carsen Willans is locked in a four-way tie for fourth in playoff scoring with 13 points. . . Leaf defenceman Robson Cramer sat out his first game of his suspension after receiving a match penalty during Game three. . . . In the Eddie Mountain Division, Kimberley took a 3-1 series lead over Creston with a 6-3 win in the Bavarian City.
