The Niverville Nighthawks outshot the Portage Terriers last night at the CRRC, by a wide margin, but were unable to outscore them. The home team fell 3–1, unable to get past the Portage netminder until the last minute of play. With the loss the Nighthawks remain in fourth place in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 30–17–3.
Portage opened the scoring late in the first period and then added another late in the second period to take a two-goal lead.
The Nighthawks kept chipping away but weren’t able to score until a minute left in the third period with the goalie pulled. Hayden Wheddon scored to cut the lead to 2–1. But then Portage added an empty netter with six seconds left to hold on.
Niverville’s Austin Dubinsky stopped 23 shots in goal for the loss.
“It was a combination of their goalie playing well and our team not burying our opportunities,” says Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst. “We played well and didn’t get the win. We fell asleep defensively on two shifts and that cost us.”
The Nighthawks are back in action with a road game on March 1 against the Dauphin Kings. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve just got to keep coming back to practice and get better on our board work, as we lacked in that area tonight,” says Hirst. “If we do that, we’ll be ready for this weekend’s game with Dauphin.”
