By Bill Burfoot
The Niverville Nighthawks made the most of their first road test of the season, defeating the Virden Oil Capitals on Friday night by a 4–1 score to improve to a perfect 2–0–0 record.
It was a slow start for Niverville, who were outshot 15–6 in the opening frame as Virden came out buzzing in front of their home crowd. The Oil Capitals opened the scoring midway through the first period when Noel Englot capitalized on a slick feed from Nathan Schaefer, slipping a backhand past goaltender Austin Dubinsky to make it 1–0.
Virden nearly doubled their lead late in the first after Tyson Ulmer was awarded a penalty shot, but Dubinsky outwaited Ulmer and came up with a timely save to keep the deficit to just one.
Moments later, Dubinsky stymied another quality chance from Marshall Light on a two-on-one, keeping the Nighthawks within striking distance after 20 minutes.
Dubinsky stopped 14 of 15 shots in the period, holding the fort and giving his team the chance to respond.
Special Teams Spark the Comeback
The second period saw a shift in momentum as the Nighthawks found their legs—and their power play. Niverville struck twice with the man advantage, just 1:48 apart, to turn a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead.
First, Loic Leduc capped off a perfect three-way passing play with a shot in the slot, set up by a one-time feed from Merik Boles.
Not long after, another power play saw Aaron Krestanowich dish the puck to Hayden Wheddon, whose fanned shot fortuitously found its way to Boles. The veteran forward redirected it past Braxton Burdeny for his first of the season, giving Niverville a 2–1 lead heading into the third.
