Ty Dilello – The Niverville Citizen
The Niverville Nighthawks will be travelling home from the Parkland region with two points in the bank after a massive 5–2 win over the Dauphin Kings. With the win, the Nighthawks stay in fourth place in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 21–17–4.
“Props to the guys for coming out strong tonight against a good team in a tough building to play in,” said head coach Kelvin Cech.
The Nighthawks produced a solid 60 minutes right from puck drop. A pair of first period goals from Ethan Whillans and Luke Schaeffer got things going in the right direction for Niverville, and they never looked back.
Desmond Johnson added two more tallies throughout the game for Niverville, and captain Brett Tataryn scored his fifteenth goal of the season.
Chris Fines stopped 28 of 30 shots on the evening for the Nighthawks.
“Our penalty kill was good early on, and then we rolled from there,” said Cech. “Everyone found a way to get their legs going with speed, and we were able to get a couple of goals in the first period, which got our confidence going from there. And then we felt in control the rest of the game.”
Some of the Nighthawks were away this week performing in the MJHL’s Showcase event, so Cech was quick to point out how important it was to get back on the right track and earn a decisive victory.
“There’s always things you can improve on, but you have to enjoy the wins, as it’s tough to get wins in this league, especially at this time of the year.”
The Nighthawks have a day off on Saturday before hosting the Dauphin Kings back at the CRRC for a Sunday afternoon matinee. The puck drops at 3:00 p.m.
“We want to keep getting better. Dauphin is a big, heavy team that’s aggressive, so I expect them to start the game that way,” said Cech. “We’ll do some video and prepare, and then we’ll come back and play in front of our electric fans on Sunday.”