Joel Smyth and Tim Josza each scored twice for the Beaver Valley Nitehawks as the visitors cruised to a 7-1 victory over the Nelson Leafs on Tuesday in Nelson.
Smyth tallied the game winner converting a setup from Connor Drake 13:33 into the second period for a 2-0 lead.
With the win, the Nitehawks own first place in the Neil Murdoch Division and improve to 9-1-0-0. Nelson falls to 4-5-1-0 good for fourth place in the division through the first 10 games of the season.
B.V.’s only setback came in a 2-1 loss to the Castlegar Rebels Saturday. Backed by stellar goaltending by Connor Stojan and Landin Uzeloc, the Nitehawks have allowed just three goals and scored 34 in their last five games.
Josza opened the scoring with 1:33 left in the first period on a pretty pass from Boris Hristov. After Smyth made it 2-0, Ollie Clement notched his fifth of the season on a great individual effort, and Cade Reber put the Hawks up 4-0 with 62 seconds left in the middle frame.
Josza, a Calgary product, and Smyth from Trail scored one minute apart midway through the final frame to make it 6-0, and Nathan Simm scored with 4:00 left for a 7-0 lead.
The Leafs Ty Nykyforuk broke Stojan’s shut out bid with 35 seconds to play for the 7-1 final.
The Leafs outshot the Nitehawks 36-35 and went 0-for-6 on the power play, the Nitehawks 0-for-5.
Drake had three assists in the game, and Hristov two helpers.
The Nitehawks host the Kamloops Storm on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the B.V. Arena, before travelling to Fernie Saturday for a game against the Ghostriders on Halloween weekend at 7 p.m. M.T.