The Beaver Valley Nitehawks kick off their defense of the Neil Murdoch Division title against the Nelson Leafs on Friday night looking to take advantage of home ice.
The Hawks dominated the season series against the Leafs, winning all six games, while outscoring Nelson 32-14 over those six games. Beaver Valley also scored 5 or more goals in all but one of the meetings this year, with the one exception being a 4-3 overtime win over Nelson in early December.
The Hawks come into the post season playing some of their best hockey of the season. Since the calendar flip to 2025. The Hawks have lost just three games, with two of those being 4-2 losses to Grand Forks, the eventual KIJHL regular season champions, while losing just one game out of their final six of the season. With the Nitehawks getting healthier in 2025, its gone a long way in helping them put together consistent performances, which has lead to their 10-3-0 record during January and February. The other obvious bonus the Nitehawks have coming into the series against the Leafs is their options in net. Both Landon Uzeloc and Connor Stojan have had strong years, with Stojan being named the Neil Murdoch Division Top Goaltender this past week. On the flip side Uzeloc has gone 13-2-0 this season and has started five of the six games against the Leafs this season, winning them all.
The Leafs will know they come into Beaver Valley needing to set the tone early and try and find their early season success that had them off to an incredible 8-2-0 start. Since then it’s been an up and down season for Nelson who still haven’t found a way to beat the Hawks this season. Historically over the last number of years the season series between Beaver Valley and Nelson have been more even, with the record favouring the Hawks though. The Leafs finished the regular season on a 3-3-0 run, something they know they’ll need to improve on if they want to get pas the Hawks in the first round. The Leafs will also need to find some secondary scoring in this series. With most of the Nelson offense running though Quinn Ramsay, Kane Kennedy and Leighton Partington. Impressively Nelson are yet to lose a game in regulation this year when leading after two periods of play, with a 14-0-0-1 record, Nelson will be looking to use that to their advantage, but they have two periods to play through before they can start thinking about holding onto a third period lead.
The Leafs last beat the Nitehawks in the KIJHL Playoffs during their run to the final in 2021/22, where they beat the Hawks in six games in the second round. Since then, they’ve played just once, with the Hawks beating Nelson in six games in 2022/23. Beaver Valley also come into the post season as back to back reigning Neil Murdoch Division winners, advancing to the third round for the last two campaigns.
Series Schedule
Game 1: Friday February 28th 7:00PM
Game 2: Saturday, March 1st 7:00pm
Game 3: Monday March 3rd 7:00pm
Game 4: Tuesday March 4th 7:00pm
*Game 5: Friday March 7th 7:00pm
*Game 6: Saturday March 8th 7:00pm
*Game 7: Monday March 10th 7:00pm
