Leafs remain alive in Murdoch Final, edge Hawks 4-3
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Nelson Leafs rallied from a two-goal deficit to edge the Beaver Valley Nitehawks 4-3 and force a Game six Friday in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoff series.
The KIJHL’s regular season scoring champion, Jamie Vlanich, netted the winner midway through the third period during Game five of the series Thursday before 876 fans at the NDCC Arena.
The goal by Vlanich, his third of the playoffs, was unassisted.
The Hawks still lead the best-of-seven Murdoch Final series 3-2.
Puck drop for Game six in Fruitvale is 7:30 p.m.
If a Game seven is required, it will be played Saturday night in Nelson with a 7 p.m. start time.
Beaver Valley held a 1-0 lead after the opening period when Riley Brandt the scored on the power play, 19 seconds after Kyle Clayton was sent off for slashing.
The Hawks increased the lead to 2-0 nine minutes into the second when Ryan Edwards backhanded a harmless shot past Leaf goalie Patrick Zubick.
However, instead of then burying the Leafs, the Hawks allowed Nelson back into the game by taking foolish penalties.
Adam Hodge jumped on a Brett Clarke rebound, stuffing the loose puck into the vacant net for Nelson’s first power play marker before Carsen Willans scored his first of two in the period.
The second goal by Willans happened again on the power play as Russell Mortlock was in the penalty box for sucker punching Leaf captain Darnel St. Pierre.
The three goals came in a two-minute span to give the Leafs a 3-2 advantage.
However, before the period ended Mitch Foyle tied the game at 3-3 setting the stage for a wild third period.
Shots were 31-31 in the game.
Zubick, shelled for four goals in the Hawks 7-0 shellacking of Nelson in Game three, has been solid the past two games, registering his second win of the series for Nelson.
The Castlegar Rebels goalie has been the Leaf starter throughout the series with both of Nelson’s netminders, Brad Rebagliati and Adam Maida out of the lineup due to injury.
Clarke took the loss for the Hawks.
SERIES NOTES: Beaver Valley was playing without the services of KIJHL leading scorer Dallas Calvin, out of the lineup with a lower body injury. . . .Hawks also lost the services of Andrew Clark, who left the game in the first period after being stapled to the boards by Darnel St. Pierre . . . .Leafs Robson Cramer sat out his second of his three-game suspension for a match penalty from Game three. . . . After being shutout in Games three and four in Fruitvale, Nelson’s leading playoff scorer Carsen Willans came back in a big way Thursday scoring twice to boost his post-season total to 15 points, two behind the new KIJHL leader Aaron Azevedo of Osoyoos. Azevedo has two points in the Coyotes game Thursday against North Okanagan to leapfrog over Calvin in the scoring race.
