This weekend, not only did the Battlefords Midget Stars earn two more wins, but they were able to cross one of their season goals off the list.
That goal being: make it to the famous Mac's Midget AAA World Invitational Tournament in Calgary.
The Stars were notified they were on the waiting list and one of the teams next in line to be invited to the tournament. On the weekend they were officially invited and confirmed to be in the tournament.
"It is exciting," said Stars' head coach Martin Smith. "It is an honour that we got asked to go. I think it is a compliment on how hard the players have worked for this."
The Stars haven't played in the Mac's Tournament since 2000 when Cory McKee was the team's head coach and Colin Carriere was an assistant.
That year at the Mac's, explained Carriere, the Stars lost to Shattuck St. Mary's, a midget prep school, which was led then by Zach Parise. Parise was signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild this summer in the National Hockey League. The Stars lost in the quarter-finals and St. Mary's went on to win the tournament. The Stars also went on to play in the Hull, Que. tournament that year and lost to the eventually winners there as well.
"That is a huge experience for the players," said Carriere, who was the Stars' head coach, the last time they were invited, but couldn't go because of the short notice and the heavy price tag attached to playing in the tournament.
"We want to go there and represent not only the league, but our community. We are going there to compete hard. We are going there to win the tournament," said Smith of the expectations for the Stars in Calgary this time around. "If we didn't think we had a chance to do that we wouldn't be going. We fully intend to prepare our players to succeed at the tournament."
The Stars qualify for the Mac's after an impressive 7-1-0-1 record in November, which saw the team moved from ninth spot to fourth in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.
"During those games we found a way to win. Sometimes it is just digging down deep," said Smith.
The Stars capped off November with two wins over the Notre Dame Argos at the Civic Centre this weekend.
Saturday, Ryan Rewerts was impressive in the Stars' net making 33 saves for the 3-2 overtime win. Rewerts earned his sixth win of the season.
Austin Duzan started the scoring for the Stars with a power play goal from Eric Pfeifer and Corbin Schmidt in the second period.
After surrendering a power play goal of their own, the Stars regained the lead when Robin Yew scored from Kent Walchuk and Regan Yew.
In overtime, Braden Lacoursiere was credited with his first of two game-winning goals on the weekend. Robin and Regan Yew drew the assists on the defenceman's second goal of the season.
Sunday, Rewerts started in net, but it was Rylan Toth who played the second and third periods making 27 saves for his fourth win of the season.
The score was 2-2 after the first period with the Bast boys scoring for the Stars. Dustin scored from Ashton Clark and Austin Duzan while Spencer's goal came on a power play with Lacoursiere and Robin Yew drawing the assists.
In the second period, Troy Gerein, who had a strong pre-season and has been snake bitten through the regular season, scored his first of the year from Keifer Hintz and Pfeifer.
Spencer Bast added another goal for the Stars and they held a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.
Notre Dame tied the game, but with less than eight minutes left, Lacoursiere picked up the puck in his own end and went end-to-end before scoring five-hole on a power play.
Ryan Frehlick scored nearly a minute later and Spencer Bast finished the hat trick with a good effort to track down the puck and put it into the empty net for the 7-4 win.
"As a group we felt we didn't play as well as we could consistently for 60 minutes, in both games, but we turned it up when we had to and pulled out the victory. They were both good team efforts and we just found ways to win. When you are working hard you can do that," said Smith.
The Stars improve to 10-6-2-1 on the season and have already surpassed their win total of last season, which was seven. The Stars have twice finished with 12 wins in the past five seasons, but this is a team with potential, optimism and a winning attitude that is looking to the future and hoping to continue to stay hot.
The winning streak may come as a surprise to some, but for the Stars' players and coaches it may not be as big of a surprise.
Smith says about a month ago they went around the room and asked each player to talk about the teams he previously played with and whether or not they won.
Many players have had success on other teams at younger levels, explained Smith, and that winning attitude appears to be running through the dressing room.
"I have to give a lot of credit to the players. They are committed, they step up when they need to. They are a pretty good bunch of kids. They take it (the winning streak) in stride. Nobody cares who scores the goals - the glory is in the team. This is a total team effort," said Smith.
The Stars now prepare for a busy December with nine league games on the schedule and the Mac's Tournament running Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Next up, the Stars will host the 11-5-3-0 Tisdale Trojans at the Civic Centre Saturday and Sunday.
