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Leafs sweep Border Bruins

The Nelson Leafs appear to be headed for a one game showdown for first place with the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
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Grand Forks Border Bruins captain Jackson Purvis goes sliding into Nelson Leafs goaltender Brad Rebagliati during Friday night action at the Nelson and District Community Complex.

It appears that it will come down to the final game of the season to decided first place in the Neil Murdoch division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.

The first place Nelson Leafs swept the Grand Forks Border Bruins this weekend, winning the opener 6-4 at home Friday night and taking the second game 6-5 in Grand Forks on Saturday.

The second place Beaver Valley Nitehawks also won both weekend games — beating Castlegar 6-3 and 8-3 — to remain two pointbehind Nelson for top spot.

Beaver Valley has one game in hand on Nelson and play Friday night in Spokane.

The next night, the Leafs and the Nitehawks face off in Beaver Valley in the last game of the season for both clubs. It should be a winner take all match.

On Saturday, the Leafs travelled to Grand Forks and hung on for a 6-5 victory. Six different Leafs scored in the contest.

The locals jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one period thanks to goals by Linden Horswill, Aaron Dunlap and Alec Wilkinson.

The Leafs exploded for another three goals in the second as Carson Willans, Connor Tetlock and Travis Wellman helped them build a 6-3 lead after 40 minutes of play.

For Wellman it was his 50th goal of the season.

The third was all Grand Forks, who scored two goals to narrow the gap to 6-5 but netminder Adam Maida closed the door and the Leafs skated off with the road victory.

Maida stopped 31 of the 36 shots he faced.



Kevin Mills

About the Author: Kevin Mills

I have been a member of the media for the past 34 years and became editor of the Mission Record in February of 2015.
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