A couple of days before the start of their quarter-final series with the Weyburn Red Wings, Battlefords North Stars linemates Coby Downs and Layne Young discussed their approach to this year’s playoffs.
“Simply put, we wanted to give it everything we had,” Downs said.
“This is my last year in junior hockey and Layne had lost in the Midget AAA finals twice with the Stars, so our mindset was to bare down and do whatever it took to achieve our goal of helping this team win a title.”
Downs certainly did that and more for the Canalta Cup champions, as he led the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in post-season scoring with 25 points in 11 games on his way to earning the league’s playoff MVP award.
It was Downs’ playmaking during the North Stars undefeated run to the title that was impressive, as his 21 assists was the most by a player by since Marc-Andre Carre achieved that mark with the La Ronge Ice Wolves in 2011, though that occurred over the course of 17 games.
“I wanted to help the other guys on the ice as much as possible,” Downs said. “When you get to this time of the year, you don’t want to try and force anything.”
Young, who plays on the North Stars top line with Downs and Ben Allen, was just as dazzling during the playoffs as he was second in the SJHL with 23 points in 12 games.
“Coby and I have played together since November of 2015 so we pretty much know where we are going to be out there on the ice,” Young said.
“We both knew that if we put our minds to it and executed our game plans we could dominate any team in the playoffs, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The dynamic duo came up huge for the North Stars in Wednesday’s championship clincher at the Whitney Forum.
With his team down 4-3, Young found the back of the net to tie things up with 91 seconds left in the second period and gave his team the lead early in the final frame to chase Flin Flon Bombers netminder Zac Robidoux from the game.
“Coby made a great pass on the tying goal to set things up,” Young said. “I was busting hard to the net when I got the puck and I focused on shooting high glove side.
“On the third period goal, I just happened to be high in the slot when the puck came out to me, and I was fortunate to get a pretty good shot off.”
Downs rounded out the North Stars’ scoring a few minutes later, as his goal proved to be crucial as the Bombers clawed back within one marker in the late stages of the game.
“I’m still not really sure what happened on that play,” Downs said.
“The puck was bouncing around and ended up coming to me as I was right next to (Bombers backup netminder Brenden) Newton, so I just made a quick move to get him out of position and slid it by him. It was one of the easiest and best goals that I’ve ever scored.”
The Canalta Cup title capped off an interesting sophomore campaign with the North Stars for the Montclair, California product.
After starting the season with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, Downs returned to the SJHL and put up 72 points in 46 games in addition to committing to the Norwich University Cadets NCAA Division III hockey program in Vermont.
“Coming back here was the best thing that could have happened for me,” Downs said.
“When I first talked to (North Stars head coach and general manager) Nate (Bedford) he said we were going to win a championship, so to do that with this group of guys is pretty awesome.”
As for Young, who is eligible to return for a third season with the North Stars next fall, the championship win brought a sense of closure for the Frenchman Butte native after his initial SJHL playoff run ended last year against the Bombers in the semifinal.
“It would have been great to win the title at the Civic Centre in front of our fans, but it means a lot to come into Flin Flon and get it done here after they beat us at home last year,” Young said.
“This group has come a long way. We had some adversity when we started the season with an 8-5 record, but everyone came together and we wanted to do whatever we could for the guys that were next to us in the locker room.”
