It was a back and forth battle between the Battlefords North Stars and Melville Millionaires Tuesday, but it was Brody Luhning's overtime winner that sent the North Stars and their fans home happy.
Luhning broke the 3-3 tie just 11 seconds into overtime with his 11th of the season to give the North Stars three straight wins.
"They stuck with it," said coach Kevin Hasselberg of his players after an emotional rollercoaster of a game. "I think at times our emotions may have gotten the best of us."
Hasselberg was referring to a span of four minutes at the end of the second period where the Millionaires scored three goals and erased the North Stars' 2-0 lead, along with momentum shifts after power plays, penalty kills and an injury delay.
With four minutes left in the second period, Ian McNulty scored a power play goal for the Millionaires and nearly a minute later he scored again to tie the game. Melville scored once again with seven seconds left in the second period on what some thought was an off-side at the blue-line, but after looking at the video Hasselberg confirmed it was indeed on side.
"We took the foot off the pedal for five minutes and got caught in a transition game and that team is a very explosive hockey team, as we learned tonight," said Hasselberg.
The North Stars were able to refocus for the third period and tie the game, but not before a delay in the action after Melville's Lucas Froese was taken off the ice on stretcher.
Froese innocently got tangled up near the penalty box and was tripped. He fell face first to the ice and hit his head when he was unable to brace himself for the fall.
Once the action resumed, Blake Tatchell took a drop pass at the point and sniped the top corner to tie the game 3-3 with eight minutes left.
"It's definitely hard, to keep your legs going and your head into it," said Tatchell of the delay and waiting to see if a player would be OK. "Either way, you can come out really hard and motivated to get things going or you kind of come out slow and I think we responded in the right way."
Tatchell's 35th of the season was assisted by Woody Klassen and Brett Miller.
The North Stars generated more momentum after two minutes of sustained pressure on their only power play of the third period, which Hasselberg feels could have contributed to the eventual game-winning goal in overtime.
"That constant pressure on the power play may have resulted in the goal scored in overtime. It is hard to recover. Hats off to the power play. I thought we did very good tonight on the power play, we didn't score, but we created momentum and that's all we ask for," said Hasselberg.
Luhning's game-winning goal was scored off the rush as he sifted into the Melville zone and beat goaltender Blake Voth with a wrist shot.
It was Luhning's second point of the night, although unofficially, as he wasn't given credit for an assist in the second period when he fired a point shot that Woody Klassen followed up on and scored. Miller and Braeden Johnson were awarded the assists on Klassen's 12th goal of the season.
The other goal scorer for the North Stars was Blake Young, who was playing his first game with the North Stars this season. Young is the captain for the Battlefords Midget Stars. He made the most of his ice time in the first two periods capitalizing on a Robbie Newton pass. Tim Rollins also drew an assist on Young's first career goal, which came midway through the second period.
"It felt good, I had great linemates with Robbie Newton and (Tim) Rollins," said Young. "Robbie just gave me a pass and I finished the play off."
Young's debut was created due to injuries to Blake Wakelin and Tanner Schwab and a two-game suspension handed out to Dillon Forbes for a checking to the head in the game in Melfort last week.
"It is an honour," said Young of his opportunity to play with the North Stars. "I have always wanted to play for the Stars since I was little and it felt real good to get the call up and get the W too."
Graham Hildebrand made 23 saves for his 19th win of the season.
The North Stars now hit the road for three games in three nights and will finish the regular season with nine of their final 12 games on the road.
"It is huge, we wanted this game pretty bad," said Tatchell. "We only have three home games left and going into a three-in-three on the road it's huge because no games come easy down south so it was a big win for the boys tonight."
The North Stars have swept both three-games in three-night road trips this season. They were perfect through Melville, Yorkton and Melfort Dec. 2 to 4 and in November they were 3-0 in Weyburn, Estevan and Notre Dame.
Friday the North Stars will be in Weyburn, Saturday they face Notre Dame and Sunday they play Estevan.
"Our fans deserve to be entertained and our fans deserve to see the kids go out there and work hard. That was the message that was put forward by the players themselves. They know the situation, we have a lot of road games and only a few home games coming up we want to make sure we maximize our effort and show our appreciation to the fans in attendance. We are going to work hard for 60 minutes and give them something to be proud of and something entertaining to watch," said Hasselberg.
