The Battlefords North Stars are hot.
"It is awesome, we are on quite a role everything is working out right now," said Battlefords North Stars' leading scorer Blake Tatchell.
The North Stars have won eight straight Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League games, including neutral site games in Estevan at the SJHL Showcase, home games and most recently a win in Flin Flon, possibly the most undesirable road trip in the SJHL.
The North Stars were in Flin Flon Sunday and despite trailing the Bombers 1-0 after the first period and 3-2 after the second, the North Stars pulled out a 5-4 win to extend their winning streak to eight games after eight rounds in a shootout and second hat trick in as many games by their number eight, Blake Tatchell.
The North Stars also won at home Friday night against Humboldt in a game where Tatchell had three goals and an assist. He followed that up with another hat trick Sunday night, but Riley Storzuk of Flin Flon kept pace with the North Stars' sniper all night.
Storzuk scored the first goal for Flin Flon, his first of three Sunday night, on Connor Creech on a power play.
In the second, Tatchell responded from Tim Rollins and Zach MacLellan and scored an unassisted marker minutes later.
Braeden Johnson was the other North Star to bulge the twine Sunday, as he also drew an assist on Tatchell's hat trick goal late in the third period.
Storzuk scored to tie the game for Flin Flon with 45 second left to force overtime.
In the extra period, the North Stars put four shots on Andy Desautels in the Flin Flon net, but nothing was solved and eight shooters per side were used to finally find a winner.
Creech stopped the first three Bombers' shooters in Dylan Balaski, Jay Young and Dillan McCombie while Desautels stopped Boyd Wakelin, Tatchell and Johnson.
In the fourth round, both Kyle Hall and Storzuk scored to continue the shootout.
Brett Miller, Tanner Quinn and Rollins all missed for the North Stars while Cameron Blair, Brett Penner and Landon Hiebert all missed for Flin Flon.
In the eighth round, Tanner Schwab deked and scored while Brandt Weldon was denied to end the game.
Creech earned his fifth win of the season making 29 saves excluding those in the shootout.
Tatchell extended his point streak to 19 points in nine games and is tied for third in the SJHL with 30 points, one back of Storzuk and Estevan's Dylan Smith, who are tied for first place.
The North Stars' penalty killers were put to the test, especially in the second half and were able to hold Flin Flon at bay when it counted. They were 2/7 on the power play. The North Stars were 1/3 with the man advantage.
Friday was another test of the penalty killers against Humboldt, as they were down a man for five minutes after Jake Daughtry received a major and game misconduct for checking to the head in the third period.
Humboldt scored early in the third and had the opportunity to pull to within a goal on the power play, but 31 seconds after the kill, Johnson set up Miller on a two-on-one and scored to put the home team up 6-3 during a pivotal point in the game.
"We had a lot of players sitting on the bench for five minutes and getting cold," said North Stars' coach Kevin Hasselberg. "Not only did we get the kill, but those cold players went on the ice and scored on the next shift. That game could've easily gone the other direction at that point. Our guys held their composure."
The North Stars did hold on to win 6-4 with Graham Hildebrand earning his eighth win of the season. Before the game Hildebrand was named the North Stars player of the month for October, as he had a 5-2 record during the month with two shutouts.
"He has been there all year and he came up huge again tonight when he needed to. He is hot," said Tatchell of the North Stars veteran goaltender.
Offensively Travis Sparrow, Dillon Forbes, Ryen Keller and Johnson all had one assist while Schwab and Rollins had two helpers each. Boyd Wakelin scored once while Brett Miller had two goals, but it was Tatchell leading the way with a four-point night.
"Blake really put guys on his back tonight," said Hasselberg. "He took control, started shooting the puck, and the puck was going in for him. He is another player that would admit to not being complete and still working on areas of his game. Where he does draw his strengths and what he brings to the team offensively has been a gift and certainly a positive attribute to our program right now."
The North Stars will be practising this week, as they are off until Saturday when Humboldt returns to take on the SJHL leading 14-4-0-1 Battlefords North Stars.
