The Niverville Nighthawks are clinging to the final playoff spot in the MJHL by a thread after a 4–1 loss to the Dauphin Kings on Saturday night. With the loss, the Nighthawks stay in fourth place for the final playoff spot, but they’re up just two points in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 23–22–4.
Dauphin opened the scoring just a few minutes into the first period and would add another tally midway through the second period to take a 2–0 lead.
Ty Kennett scored his thirteenth goal of the season to cut the deficit to 2–1, but that’s as close as the Nighthawks got on the evening. Dauphin added a pair of goals late in the third period to win 4–1.
Raiden LeGall stopped 33 shots in the Nighthawks’ goal in the loss.
“The effort and the compete was there as we just had four mistakes that ended up in our net,” said Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “Our neutral zone play gave us a chance to get pucks back in the offensive zone. I was happy with the structure we had tonight, but at this time of the year those small mistakes cost us two points. There was nothing that Dauphin gave us trouble with, I felt. We just need to focus on what we need to do to turn pucks over and counterattack. If anything, I thought Dauphin did a good job of getting in shot lanes in the offensive zone.”
The Nighthawks are back in action with a home game today against the Winnipeg Freeze. The puck drops at 3:00 p.m.
“We need to realize the importance of every shift and not taking a shift off,” he said. “We have really improved on neutral zone and blue line pressure, which in turn gives us an opportunity to get pucks into the offensive zone. It’s a fast turnaround, so we need to reflect for a short moment and get ready for tomorrow.”
