The Niverville Nighthawks season has ended after a 3–2 loss in game six to the Winkler Flyers at home on Monday night.
The top-seeded Flyers were once again the better team for much of the night and outshot the Nighthawks by a 39–22 margin, a margin which had become somewhat typical of previous games in the series.
It was also a game in which the Nighthawks led with strong, quick play—and then fell apart at the halfway point.
Dawson Zeller got Niverville on the board just five minutes into the contest to put the home crowd into a frenzy.
Early in the second period, Evan Panzer scored to make it 2–0 for the Nighthawks early.
But near the end of the second, Winkler began to outpace Niverville. A pair of late second period markers tied up the contest.
The Flyers went up early in the third period, scoring on the power play with 14 minutes remaining in regulation. Niverville fought hard but struggled to mount the necessary offence, despite some good opportunities with the goalie pulled in the dying minutes.
Niverville’s Austin Dubinsky stopped 36 shots in goal in the loss.
“I’m very proud of this team for fighting hard all series long against a very good hockey club in Winkler,” says Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “We took some penalties early in the third period that cost us tonight and that’s the way it went. It was a fantastic season and we hope to be back even stronger for next year.”
