The Niverville Nighthawks got back in the win column on Friday night at the CRRC with a thrilling 6–5 victory over the Winnipeg Freeze—a contest that got pushed all the way to a shootout. With the win, the Nighthawks stay in fifth place in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 7–7–0.
Despite being outshot by their opposition 46–22, this was a very close game from start to finish.
Niverville scored twice in the first period with goals from Adam Vigfusson and Merik Boles. After jumping to a 2–1 lead, though, Winnipeg got rolling in the second period. The Freeze got a trio of quick goals to go up 4–2.
Luke Mackenzie found the back of the net for Niverville at the tail end of the period to tighten the score.
In the third period, Niverville’s Calyb Moore scored his first of the season to tie the game at four goals apiece—only for the Freeze to go up again.
With just 30 seconds left in the game, Vigfusson was the hometown hero, netting his second goal of the night and the equalizer.
No goals in overtime meant the teams headed to a shootout. Vigfusson and Dawson Zeller both scored in the shootout to give Niverville the 6–5 victory.
Niverville’s Raiden LeGall stopped 17 shots in goal for the win.
“I’m very proud of the boys for staying with it and getting that tying goal,” says Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “Then we were pushing the pace in overtime, controlled the possession in overtime, and got two big goals in the shootout. Raiden gave us the opportunity to get to overtime and held up his bargain in the shootout as well.”
It’s a quick turnaround as the Nighthawks are back in action with another home game tonight, this time versus the Neepawa Titans. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m.
“Big wins are great and those are moments that can jumpstart an offence back to what we are capable of,” says Hirst. “It should be a great game with Neepawa.”
