Cech out as Nighthawks head coach and general manager

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This article was published 15/02/2024 (521 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With only 14 games to play in the 2022/2023 regular season, the Niverville Nighthawks have fired their head coach and general manager Kelvin Cech.

The board made the move Feb. 13, with the team’s news release announcing that assistant general manager and head scout Mike McAulay will serve as the team’s interim general manager and Dwight Hirst will be hired on as the interim coach.

Cech was the first coach hired by the Nighthawks, which only began play in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) in the fall of 2022.

Niverville has been mired in a rough run of play since the new year. The team won five of their last six games of 2023, including victories over top-seeded Winkler and Steinbach. Since the start of 2024, the Nighthawks have gone 3-6-2, getting outscored 49-31 across that span.

Club president Clarence Braun said letting go of Cech was completely motivated by the team’s play on the ice.

“We just saw the trend was not going in the right direction for us, and felt like we needed to make a change to re-gain some momentum,” Braun said.

“Every coach that comes in brings in their strengths, and (Cech) was a great leader in terms of systems and that kind of thing and we really appreciate what he brought to the Nighthawks. We felt going forward we needed to move in a different direction.”

The move comes as a surprise, despite the recent spell of poor play. The Nighthawks are comfortably in a playoff position, owning a seven-point advantage over the Selkirk Steelers.

That lead in the standings had been dwindling as of late, as it looked like a sure thing Niverville would make the playoffs earlier this year.

“The timing just happens to be where we are right now,” Braun said.

“It’s never easy on the coach that’s leaving. It’s never easy on the players and we understand that. But you always want to give your 20-year-olds the best opportunity to get a playoff run in their last year of junior.”

Cech’s last game behind the bench was a 7-1 loss to Virden, the other top team in the MJHL, which currently leads the Western Division.

The coach’s last win behind the bench wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over the lowly Winnipeg Freeze.

Captain Brett Tataryn managed to tie the game in the third period, with Alex Walicki batting home the winning goal with 3:30 to go in regulation.

Two days later the Nighthawks were stomped by the Oil Capitals, which scored four goals in four minutes to end the first period, easily handing Niverville the loss.

Walicki came over just before the junior hockey roster deadline, as the Nighthawks looked to bolster their roster to compete with the top teams in the league. Instead of a boost, the additions haven’t provided Niverville with the spark the board was looking for.

“You bring in players to give the team an opportunity, and you look for a response,” Braun said.

“And we didn’t have one.”

Braun said he hopes the firing sends a message to everyone Niverville expects to compete at the highest possible level every year, and was grateful to have assistant coaches Ben Micflikier and Tyler Anderson stay on.

“(Cech) was basically relieved of his duties, but the responsibility falls on all of us, including the players, to be better, and that’s our goal,” Braun said.

Hirst will join a team looking to get back on track. The Lac du Bonnet coach spent last season coaching the Eastman Selects in the Manitoba AAA U18 league. He temporarily resigned as Eastman’s coach in December of 2022, before re-joining the team in the new year.

“Everything for us is a first,” Braun said.

“We’re not sorry we hired (Cech). He brought a lot to our team, and we wish him the very best.”

The Nighthawks new bench boss won’t have an easy match-up to start his coaching career.

Niverville played Winkler Feb. 14 in a game completed after press time, and has a spell of three games in four nights this long weekend.

The Nighthawks (with the newly constructed above the ice bar), will host OCN and Virden at 7 p.m. on Feb. 16/17, before travelling to Portage for a Louis Riel Day match-up.