The Niverville Nighthawks put a bow on a historic regular season Friday night, defeating the Portage Terriers 5–1 on the road to extend their winning streak to 11 games and finish atop the standings in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
Niverville ends the season with a league-best 51–6–1 record, marking the most wins by an MJHL team since the Terriers recorded 52 victories in the 2015–16 campaign. It’s also the highest win total since the league moved to a 58-game schedule.
The Nighthawks’ .888 winning percentage ranks as the second-best in league history, trailing only the 2014–15 Terriers, who finished 53–3–1–3 for a .917 percentage in a 60-game season.
Throughout the year, Niverville established itself as the league’s most dominant club, stringing together winning streaks of 15 games, 16 games, and an 11-game run to close the season.
Offensively, the Nighthawks led the league with 280 goals and placed five players in the MJHL’s top 20 in scoring. Hayden Wheddon topped the league with 90 points, while Merik Boles finished with 72, Adam Vigfusson had 61, Loik Leduc recorded 60, and Evan Panzer added 55.
Defensively, the Nighthawks allowed a league-low of 117 goals. Goaltenders Austin Dubinsky and Ben Chornomydz both ranked near the top of the league in save percentage, goals-against average, and wins.
But before playoffs could start, the Nighthawks had some business to finish up on Friday night. Niverville’s power play set the tone early Friday, scoring twice in the opening period.
Kole Mears opened the scoring when Marlen Edwards slid a cross-ice pass to the right circle, where Mears fired a one-timer past Terriers goalie Logan Cunningham to make it 1–0.
The Nighthawks doubled their lead midway through the period when Hayden and Boles worked the puck in the corner before Wheddon found Vigfusson open at the top of the crease. Vigfusson lifted the puck over Cunningham’s blocker to give Niverville a 2–0 lead after one.
The Terriers got on the board midway through the second period. After Dubinsky stopped the initial shot on a two-on-one rush, Tyler Kendall gathered the rebound and slipped a backhand pass to Dylan Russell, who tapped it in from the top of the crease to cut the lead to 2–1.
But just as Portage began building momentum, Niverville’s power play struck again, breaking away with goals in 59 seconds midway through the second period.
Dubinsky started the sequence with a perfect outlet pass that caught the Terriers during a line change. Wheddon broke in alone and beat Cunningham to make it 3–1, keeping Niverville perfect on the power play.
Thirty-eight seconds later, Jake Demone carried the puck from his own end behind the Portage net before centring a pass to John Scott, who finished from the crease to extend the lead to 4–1.
Just 21 seconds after that, Dawson Zeller took a pass from Leduc in the left circle and wired a wrist shot bar-down to cap the outburst and make it 5–1, which held as the final score.
By the final buzzer, Dubinsky had stopped 22 of 23 shots to earn his thirty-fourth win of the season, the most by an MJHL goaltender since Roman Bengart won 38 games for the Steinbach Pistons during the 2016–17 season.
With the regular season complete, the Nighthawks now turn their attention to the playoffs, where they will face the Winkler Flyers in the first round. It will be a rematch of last year’s opening round, when the Flyers eliminated Niverville in six games.
The MJHL playoff schedule has not yet been released. The Citizen will have a full playoff preview and updated schedule in the coming days.