As the Battlefords AAA Stars are facing the fact that they’ll be missing the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 2012, goaltender Lance Alm is among those looking back on some of the points that they missed cashing in on.
“We were just missing that consistency that you need on a nightly basis in this league and we lost some key games that we needed to win to be in a playoff spot,” Alm said.
“There was a game at home against Beardy’s earlier in the season (where the North Stars coughed up a 5-1 lead to the Blackhawks before losing 6-5 in overtime) that stands out, and it’s those kind of games that you can’t lose if you want to make it to the post-season.”
The Stars were officially eliminated from playoff contention Saturday as a result of a 5-4-road loss to the Moose Jaw Generals and a 3-2 win by the Saskatoon Blazers over the Regina Pat Canadians.
While their season will come to an end Thursday night with a 7:30 p.m. battle against the Beardy’s Blackhawks at the Civic Centre, the Stars are not going quietly into the night.
They snapped a seven-game losing streak in dramatic fashion Tuesday, as they came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Blazers with a 3-2 overtime win on home ice.
“It feels really good to get that win,” Stars defenceman Luke Reid said. “We’ve been playing well as of late, but not over the course of a full 60 minutes, and we did that tonight thanks to some hard work from everyone in the lineup.”
“It’s important for us to have a really good finish to the season,” Alm added. “It gets everyone fired up for their spring camps for whatever team they are trying out for, and for the guys that will be coming back, to get a couple of wins before the season comes to an end is huge for them.”
Reid was the hero in overtime Tuesday, as he blasted the puck by Blazers netminder Jacob Wasserman at the 2:56 mark of the extra frame.
“Jaden (Shewchuk) made a nice play along the wall and he fed the puck to me in the slot,” Reid said.
“I just shot the puck as soon as I got it and it went in the back of the net.”
Alm was stellar once again in goal as he made 40 saves, with his biggest coming on a diving cross-crease save during the overtime period when the Blazers were on a power play.
“Their guy got the puck and I thought he was going to one-time it by me at first,” Alm said.
“I was on the other side of the crease and luckily I had enough time as he was waiting to shoot the puck to get across, and I was able to get enough of my glove on the shot to keep it from going in.”
Shewchuk and Adam Beckman had a pair of assists for the Stars in Tuesday’s win, with their other goals coming from Jordan Mish and Matthew Flodell.
Battlefords North Stars prospect Matthew Fletcher led the way for the Blazers on offence with a goal and an assist, while Luke Puto also found the back of the net in the loss.
Prior to Tuesday’s triumph at home, the Stars fell 4-1 to the Generals Sunday in the second game of their weekend series.
“We didn’t play well in that game, but I thought we had a pretty good game in the 5-4 loss we had against them Saturday,” Stars head coach Norm Johnston said. “We ended up running out of gas at the end of it, but I was fairly happy with how we played.”
Tyson Meyers and Reid each had two points Saturday, while Beckman had the lone goal Sunday.
