The Niverville Nighthawks gave it a spirited effort but were unable to overcome the Virden Oil Capitals, falling 3–1 on the road Friday night. With the win, the Nighthawks drop to third place in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 4–2–0.
Niverville’s Avery Laliberte opened the game’s scoring five minutes into the opening frame while on the power play. That was the only scoring in the first period.
In the second period, Virden came alive with a couple of early goals that put Niverville on their heels.
The Oil Capitals added another tally in the third period, and that was all she wrote.
Niverville’s Raiden LeGall stopped 30 shots in goal for the loss.
“I thought Virden filled the shot lanes very well,” says Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “They had a lot of shot blocks tonight and we didn’t recognize the importance of getting pucks off quickly and not dusting it off. Defensively, as a team, we just didn’t play well enough as a five-man unit in our own end. We didn’t box out or get to loose pucks quick enough and Virden’s second effort tonight was more noticeable than ours.”
Hirst is also quick to point out the positives of his team’s play on the night.
“Our special teams added another power play goal and we had a few good pushes to pull it back closer at times. There were glimpses, but more lapses in our own game.”
The Nighthawks are back in action with a road game on Wednesday, October 9 against the Winnipeg Blues. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
“This one is over now, and we’ve got to move ahead towards practice on Monday,” says Hirst. “We have to pull out some of the positives and drop the negatives. Watching some game film will be important in the days to come for our team.”
