The Niverville Nighthawks stumbled out of the gate on Saturday night, taking a tough 5–2 loss on the road to the Selkirk Steelers. Niverville now has a 32–19–3 record and has already secured a playoff spot in the MJHL’s East Division.
It was a very chippy affair with a whole whack of penalties. Selkirk jumped out to a 2–0 lead midway through the contest before the Nighthawks’ Bryce Warkentine scored with eight minutes remaining in the second period to cut the lead.
Selkirk then took over the game in the third period, scoring three times. Two of them were empty-netters.
Niverville got one goal from Matteo Speranza, but in the end it was the Steelers who ran away with it.
“It was an undisciplined rollercoaster kind of a night,” says Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “We need to learn how to play a disciplined game, as it’s now three games in a row of selfish penalties. So we need to know how to control our emotions and play with them.”
Hirst didn’t mince words, as he was very displeased with his club’s performance against Selkirk.
“It feels like we took the foot off the gas tonight and played selfishly in all aspects,” he says. “Some players on our club need to understand that winning involves doing something that they might not want to do, but they understand that it helps the team.”
The Nighthawks are back in action with a home game tonight against the Neepawa Titans. The puck drops at 6:00 p.m.
