‘Pinch me and tell me this is a dream’: Niverville Nighthawks a win away from national title
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An eastern Manitoba hockey team that did not even exist only a few years ago is one win away from taking the top prize at the Junior A level in Canada.
The Niverville Nighthawks will be playing the host Summerside Western Capitals in the Centennial Cup final Sunday, following a down-to-the-wire comeback against the Toronto Patriots Saturday afternoon.
Sunday’s game against the home team in Summerside, P.E.I. will cap what’s been a storybook season for the Nighthawks, who punched their ticket to the national championship by taking the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Turnbull Cup in April after dropping only one game in the playoffs.
“Pinch me and tell me this is a dream,” marketing director Kevin Dunn said Saturday.
“We got a fantastic hockey club. We’ve got fantastic coaches, players, organization…. We got great community support. So everything is just fitting in the way it should be.”
The team, which only joined the MJHL in 2022-23, won 51 out of 58 regular season games this past season. The Canadian Junior Hockey League ranked them the second-best Junior A hockey team in the country in its final seasonal ranking.
WATCH | Niverville Nighthawks to play in Centennial Cup championship game:
Niverville Nighthawks punch ticket to Centennial Cup championship game
An excited crowd packed Smitty’s in Niverville, Man., on Saturday afternoon. The Niverville Nighthawks triumphed at the semifinals for the Centennial Cup in Summerside, P.E.I., where they were playing for a chance to win Canada’s national championship for Jr. A hockey.
That performance “puts you on the map,” Dunn said. “I’ve joked of how many times somebody’s googled ‘Niverville.com’ to find out where we are.”
‘They’ve acomplished so much, so quickly’
Many Niverville residents attended a packed watch party at a local Smitty’s restaurant Saturday to watch the semifinal game.
The Nighthawks were trailing the Ontario Junior Hockey League-winning Patriots for most of the game, down 3-0 early in the second period.
Goals by Evan Panzer, from North Dakota, and Winnipegger Marlen Edwards began the comeback. In the third period, with less than four minutes left in the game, St. Adolphe’s Calyb Moore tied the game.
Just over a minute later, Merik Boles from Lorette tipped a shot from the point past the Toronto goalie to give the Nighthawks a 4-3 lead.
It turned out to be the game-winning goal, sending the Nighthawks to the final.
Brett O’Brien moved to Niverville just as the team was starting out. He and his wife decided to volunteer for the Nighthawks as a way to connect to their new community.
“The team itself has just embraced the community and it’s just been a big circle of everyone just coming together and rallying around this team,” O’Brien said at the watch party.
“The fact that they’ve accomplished so much, so quickly has just been awesome.”
The Nighthawks, who have been undefeated so far this tournament, already won one game against the Western Capitals, beating the host team 5-4 in overtime during the preliminary round on May 7.
The puck drops in the championship game at 5 p.m. central time Sunday.
“It’s amazing how much energy that it’s going to bring the town,” Dunn said.
