A couple of minutes of madness proved to be the difference at the West Central Events Centre Tuesday night.
The host Kindersley Klippers scored three goals in under a minute in the final frame as they came from behind to defeat the Battlefords North Stars by a score of 4-2, in a game that saw the visitors hold a 2-0 lead for most of the night.
“We weren’t as desperate as I thought we should have been in the third period,” North Stars head coach and general manager Brandon Heck said. “I don’t think it was team mistakes that were the difference. It was just a few sloppy plays that cost us.
“We played pretty well on defence tonight, but we definitely needed to score more than two goals with the chances that we had.”
One aspect of the lack of cashing in on offence was with the power play, as the North Stars were unable to find the back of the net on seven attempts.
The lack of goals on the man advantage has been noticeable during the last six road games for the team, as they have scored twice in 33 opportunities.
“They didn’t put the shots where they needed to go,” Heck said. “I thought we zipped the puck around well and got some good looks, but the big thing we need to work on is arriving at the net when the puck gets there for the rebounds instead of staying and hoping for it to come to us.
“We need to get more traffic in front of the net and that was something that was more apparent to me tonight than in some of our other games as of late.”
Cole Johnson and Elijah Loon-Stewardson scored for the North Stars in the loss, which saw their record fall to 30-7-2-0.
After rattling off 10 straight wins following his return to the team from the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades in November, Joel Grzybowski suffered his first defeat of the season after turning aside 23 shots.
Nikolas Malencia paced the Klippers on offence with a goal and two assists, while Thomas Bollefer, Tanner Thompson and Bryson Cecconi also scored.
Justen Close made 33 saves for the hosts, who now have a 17-16-3-2 record and have a three-point cushion over the Flin Flon Bombers for eighth place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings.
The North Stars, who still lead the Notre Dame Hounds by 10 points in the Global Ag Risk Solutions Division, will wrap up their seven-game road swing Wednesday evening as they’ll visit the Melfort Mustangs.
Following that contest, the team will return to the Civic Centre to take on the league leading Nipawin Hawks Friday at 7:30 p.m. before facing the La Ronge Ice Wolves in a neutral site game in Spiritwood Saturday.
