For some of the Battlefords Midget Stars, it was their final weekend of midget hockey. Both the Stars and Notre Dame Hounds, who are out of the playoff picture, made the most of their final opportunity on the ice this season, as the two weekend games needed overtime.
Saturday, the Stars outshot the Hounds 15-7 in the first period and led 3-0 after 20 minutes, but had that lead evaporate in the second period.
In the first, Robin Yew scored his third of the season for Brody Tatchell. Tatchell set up Garrett Zelinski later in the period, along with Tyson Empey for Zelinksi's second goal of the season. Later, Jordaan Braun scored his fifth of the season short handed from Ashton Clark.
In the second, Tim McGauley, Daniel Wanner and Ian Williams scored for the Hounds making it a tie game heading into the third.
The teams traded goals in the third period. First in was Clay Van Diest scoring for the Hound three minutes in. Midway through the period, Blake Young scored his 14th of the season from Carter Danczak on a power play.
In overtime, Notre Dame put seven shots at Nigel Detbrenner-Rempel, but and he held his ground and kept the game tied. Detbrenner-Rempel stopped 32 of 36 shots and ended his rookie season with a 6-8-1 record. Rempel had a 4.78 goals-against average and a .876 save percentage.
Sunday, Blair Mahon was in net for his final game as a Midget Star and he helped his team get to overtime for the third straight game.
Mahon faced 35 shots while the Stars fired 41 shots at Alexi Thibaudeau.
Notre Dame led 1-0 after a low-scoring first period, but there was plenty of offence to come.
In the second, Jacob Cardiff scored his second of the game for Notre Dame and Van Diest put the Hounds up 3-0.
The Stars rallied later in the second, as Danczak scored his 24th of the season on a rebound. Eric Pfeifer and Reece Fenrich had the assists.
Kihisis Derocher scored with 1:14 left in the second period, while Clark and Braun set him up for his 18th goal of the season.
Notre Dame answered back with 34 seconds left in the second period, as Ryan Donovan reclaimed the two-goal lead.
Just 12 seconds later, Young scored from Danczak and Tatchell to put the Stars down 4-3 heading into the third period.
In the final third period of the season, Notre Dame's Wanner and Jordy Williamson scored for the visitors while Danczak scored from Young and Mahon. Fenrich also scored after the defenceman played a few shifts at forward after the Stars lost two players to fights earlier in the game.
Empey scored the game-tying goal for the Stars with eight minutes left from Austin Duzan and Braun.
With one minute left in overtime, Donovan scored for the Hounds and marked the end of the season for both the Hounds and Stars.
The Stars finished the 2011-12 campaign with a 7-32-2-3 record. The Stars graduate seven players from their roster this season including Danczak, who was the leading scorer, captain Young, Tatchell, Braun, Fenrich, Zelinski and Mahon.
The Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs will be underway with Prince Albert, the Saskatoon Contacts, Beardy's, Moose Jaw, Tisdale, the Notre Dame Argos, Saskatoon Blazers and Swift Current facing off for the league championship.
Along with wrapping up their season, the Stars drew the winner of their travel voucher draw and the 15-cash draw winners.
The Stars will meet one final time in March for their year-end banquet. Also, the nominees for the league awards have been submitted by the Stars along with an MVP, top forward and top defenceman, Mahon has been nominated for the Chuck Herriot Award, as he is someone who displays sportsmanship, dedication and commitment to the hockey, education and community. Also Stars first year head coach Lorne Nielsen is one of five coaches nominated for the coach of the year honour.
