The Niverville Nighthawks have now lost three in a row after falling on Tuesday night on the road to the Selkirk Steelers by a 5–2 score. With the loss, the Nighthawks fall behind .500, bringing their record to 8–9–1.
After a scoreless first period, Selkirk scored twice in the early stages of the second. To the Nighthawks’ credit, they fought back later in the period as Evan Bortis scored his first two Nighthawks goals back-to-back to tie the game at 2–2.
Selkirk was the better team in the third period as they pulled away with three consecutive goals, including two empty-netters, to win the contest 5–2.
Chris Fines stopped 31 shots on the evening in goal for the Nighthawks.
“We battled to get back into the game in the second, but Selkirk found another gear in the third period,” said Nighthawks head coach Kelvin Cech. “But things like that can happen in this league when everything is so close and competitive.”
Although Selkirk is ranked lower in the standings to Niverville at the moment, it’s a testament to the parity in the MJHL that anyone can beat anyone on any given night. And Cech warned that you can’t take any teams for granted.
“You’re fortunate to beat anyone in this league,” he said. “Sometimes it’s dangerous to look at teams below you in the standings, so you always have to respect your opponents. It’s a learning curve for our guys, and everything is a new experience. So at the end of the day, Selkirk is happy tonight, and we’re not.”
It’s a short turnaround as the Nighthawks are back in action tonight at home at Niverville’s CREC (7:30 p.m.) against the Steinbach Pistons, who currently sit atop the standings in the East Division.
“It’s nice to be home after a long road trip, so we’re excited to get home in front of our fans,” said Cech. “We know there’s going to be a ton of energy in the building as geographically this is our rival in Steinbach, and they’ll have lots of fans in the arena as well. So it’s going to be bumping.”
