It was a spirited effort at the CRRC on Saturday night, but in the end, the top-ranked Portage Terriers defeated the Niverville Nighthawks by a 4–2 score.
The Terriers got revenge on Niverville after the latter defeated them on October 19. With the loss, the Nighthawks stay in fourth place in the MJHL’s East Division with a 7–7–0 record.
“We had jump for sure and poise,” said Nighthawks head coach Kelvin Cech. “I think we needed to simplify things early on, as we had a couple of breakdowns which cost us. I’m generally happy with how we played but just not good enough tonight.”
The Nighthawks fell behind the 8-ball early when Portage opened the scoring just over a minute into the contest. Niverville tied the game early in the second period when Brett Tataryn potted his team-leading tenth goal of the season.
Sadly, that’s as close as the Nighthawks would come to winning on the evening. Portage replied with two goals later in the second period.
Isaac Rentmeester scored for Niverville in the third period, but a Portage empty-netter sealed the 4–2 win for the road team.
Ethan Kadatz stopped 25 of 28 shots on the evening for the Nighthawks.
“It’s tough to play from behind, and we did so the whole game after we got that early one, but the guys are resilient and dug in,” said Cech. “It’s too bad we weren’t able to tie it up.”
Rentmeester’s third period tally was his first MJHL goal and one to remember as he made a good read in front of the net and deflected a point shot past the Terriers netminder.
“I just knew I had to go to the net on that one, and I ended up getting a lucky deflection, and it went in,” said Rentmeester.
It will be a quick turnaround for the Nighthawks as they return to the ice Sunday night (October 30) to take on the Winnipeg Blues. The puck drops at the RINK Training Centre at 5:00 p.m.
“We’re really smart with what we do after the game, as the guys know what to do afterwards to cool their bodies down,” Cech aidd. “It’s another quick turnaround, but that’s hockey. It’s a big game tomorrow with playoff implications on the line, so we better be ready to go.”
“We came in knowing what we needed to do, and although we didn’t accomplish everything we wanted, we did a lot of good things, and we’re going to build off that,” Rentmeester added. “We’re going to take tonight as a loss and come back tomorrow just as strong as we always are and go for the win.”
In other Nighthawks news, the club recently made a few trades, acquiring defenseman Lucas Bourdon from the SJHL’s Melfort Mustangs and forward Bryce Warkentine from the Steinbach Pistons.
Bourdon spent the last two seasons with the Powell River Kings and Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL.
“Lucas just arrived here yesterday,” Cech said. “He is not quite ready for game action yet, but he’s a smooth-skating two-way defenceman. He’s got two years of Junior A experience, so we’re really excited to get him. He’ll get a full week of practice, and then we expect him in the line-up next weekend.”
