Following their overtime home win against the Melfort Mustangs, the Battlefords North Stars had to rest up quickly for three games in four days on the road.
The contests were in Humboldt Saturday night and then in Warman Sunday and Tuesday against the La Ronge Ice Wolves and the Weyburn Red Wings.
The contest against the Humboldt Broncos was particularly notable as the first game for the North Stars against their divisional rivals since the April 6 bus tragedy. It was also the first game for head coach Brayden Klimosko against the team in which he had been a player and assistant coach.
Both teams were motivated for a good showing, and as it turned out, the Broncos came out on top 4-2 for their first home win of the season.
Humboldt 4 North Stars 2
Humboldt got the lone goal of the first period as Brayden Camrud scored from Owen Guenter and Luke Spadafora on the power play.
In the second, Derek Patter increased the margin to 2-0 with Liam Drager assisting. But the North Stars tied it on power play goals by Matthias Urbanski from Owen Lamb at the 2:52 mark, and then MacGregor Sinclair at 7:13 from Cody Spagrud and Braydon Buziak. For Sinclair it was his third goal of the season so far.
Humboldt was awarded a penalty shot at the 5:58 mark of the second period, but Joel Grzybowski came up with the big save for the Battlefords.
Unfortunately, the Broncos scored later on in the period. Chase Felguieras restored the lead from Daunte Fortner and Patter at 14:34, and Camrud got the insurance marker at the 16:16 mark from Fortner and Zach McIntyre.
The 4-2 score held up through the entire period to secure the Broncos’ win. Grzybowski stopped 33 of 37 shots for the North Stars while Dane Dow got the win for the Broncos stopping 23 of 25. Derek Patter was named the game’s first star with Grzybowski the second star.
North Stars 6 La Ronge 3
After that it was on to the SJHL Showcase at the Legends Centre in Warman. Their first Showcase contest was Sunday against the La Ronge Ice Wolves, who they had met and defeated twice before in preseason play.
This time the North Stars got off to the early lead. Austin Becker got things started with his first of the season from Tanner Scott at 9:42, and then Braydon Buziak added to the lead at 11:41 from Elijah Loon-Stewardson and Seth Summers.
In the second period Ethan King cut the margin to 2-1 at the 1:47 mark, but Urbanski restored the two-goal cushion with Regan Doig and Cody Spagrud assisting at the 8:43 mark.
Mitch Zambon cut the lead to 3-2 on his third goal of the season, Antonio De Paolo assisting.
But with Jordan Mish off for high sticking, Elijah Loon-Stewardson gave the North Stars a 4-2 lead at the end of two with a power play goal. Ryan Gil and Quintin Loon-Stewardson assisted with 1:25 left.
In the third Owen Lamb got his first of the season 58 seconds in, with Seth Summers and Braydon Buziak assisting. Kolby Johnson cut the margin to 5-3 at the 13:13 mark, but the Ice Wolves could get no further. Brett Gammer’s empty net goal with 37 seconds left sealed the 6-3 North Stars win.
Jake Davidson stopped 22 of 25 shots to get his first win of the season in net for the North Stars. Jordan Frey stopped 33 of 38 in the loss for La Ronge.
North Stars 3 Weyburn 2
The North Stars’ final game of the Showcase was against the Weyburn Red Wings Tuesday morning. In that contest the team got off to a quick early lead.
Owen Lamb scored unassisted at the 6:49 mark of the first to make it 1-0, and then the North Stars expanded the lead to 2-0 on a goal by Ryan Granville. Urbanski got his fourth assist of the season on that goal.
In the second period Ben Hiltz got his seventh of the season on the power play from Riley Lamb to cut the lead to 2-1. The second period also saw multiple penalties for the North Stars and several power play opportunities for the Red Wings, which failed to get past netminder Joel Grzybowski.
The North Stars thought they scored later in the period on Riley Lamb, but it was called back on alleged goaltender interference, although the replay on Access indicated Lamb may have done some embellishing. In any event, it remained 2-1.
In the third period, the North Stars got the insurance marker they needed. MacGregor Sinclair scored a highlight-reel goal with 4:57 left in the period to make it 3-1 North Stars.
That goal, beating a Weyburn defender en route to the net, got the attention of the Access TV broadcast crew. On their post-game show, coach Klimosko agreed Sinclair’s goal was the goal of the tournament.
“He’s done everything for us so far,” Klimosko said on Access TV. He called Sinclair “a smart hockey player. He likes to compete, he likes to battle all the time.”
A roughing penalty call on Regan Doig made things interesting in the late going, as Weyburn pulled their netminder for a 6-on-4 with 1:52 to go. Weyburn’s Jordan Kazymyra did manage to score to pull Weyburn within one with 18 seconds left, but the Wings could not get any closer than that.
The North Stars held on for a 3-2 final, outshooting Weyburn 42-33. That capped a sweep of their two games at the Showcase. Moreover, the North Stars’ had gotten their season back on track with three wins in four outings, to move their record to 3-3 on the season.
With the Showcase over, the North Stars have a couple of days to rest up before returning to action Friday night at home to the Estevan Bruins.
