The Niverville Nighthawks are on the road this weekend for a pair of games on the western side of the province. On Friday night, they fell 4–3 in a shootout to the Swan Valley Stampeders.
“It’s nice to hit the bus with the guys and go on the road for some games,” said Nighthawks head coach Kelvin Cech. “That’s part of the fun of junior hockey, and the travel is so good in our league that it’s pretty short. We got no complaints.”
Friday night’s game was one that the Nighthawks probably should have won, but they let it slip it away. Niverville led 3–1, but Swan Valley climbed back into the game with a pair of goals to force overtime.
The Stampeders eventually won in a shootout, so the Nighthawks were forced to leave Swan River with a single point.
Goals on the night for Niverville were scored by Brendan Bottem, Braden Panzer, and Josh Paulhus.
“I thought the team played very well and battled very hard for me tonight,” said netminder Chris Fines, who was playing his first game back with the team since being injured six weeks ago. “They kept lots of shots to the outside and made my night pretty easy. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to make one more save in the shootout to keep it going. But that’s hockey. And we will get them next time.”
With the shootout loss, the Nighthawks stay in fourth place in the MJHL’s East Division with an 8–7–1 record.
Fines had been out of action with a torn MCL in his left knee, but he was terrific in goal, making 38 saves on 41 shots.
“Fines was great in his first game back,” said Cech. “He had one monster save in the first period which let him know that he’s fine and back, so he settled in after that and was rock solid for us.”
“It was a great feeling to get back out there for sure,” added Fines. “The rehab was pretty tough the first week, but thanks to working with our trainer, Justin Giesbrecht, I was able to be back playing in a short period of time. I give him a ton of credit!”
The Nighthawks also had a pair of new players making their MJHL debut on Friday night in Lucas Bourdon and Bryce Warkentine of Landmark.
“Lucas on the backend was very composed. He moves the puck well and really calms things down for us,” Cech said. “Bryce is kind of the opposite, as he makes a beautiful mess of things and is a hard forechecker. Both of them haven’t played a lot of hockey, so it was great to get them in the lineup for the first time.”
The Nighthawks return to the ice tonight to face the OCN Blizzard at 7:00 p.m. Catch the game on Hockey TV.
