In Midget AAA action Thursday, the Battlefords Stars were not able to dominate the Beardy's Blackhawks the same way they did the last time.
The Stars had come off a 9-2 win over them Oct. 9, but that was early in the season.
It was a much closer contest this time, as the Stars won 4-2 in what was an absolute shootfest at the Civic Centre.
Still, a win is a win, and the Stars now have an impressive 10-2-0-0 record to start the season, leaving the team just one point behind Tisdale and Regina in the overall standings.
Early on at the Civic Centre it had looked like the Blackhawks would run away and hide from the Stars, as they fired shot after shot at the Beardy's net and scored the first three goals of the game.
Goals from Jared Hillis from Keifer Hintz and Chad Grambo at 7:09, Tyler Baier from Kaleb Dahlgren and Kyle Salaway at 9:40 and then Troy Gerein from Jayden Nachtegaele and Braydon Buziak, with 9:35 left in the period all gave the Stars a 3-0 cushion.
But the Blackhawks fought back in the period as Nick Shumlanski scored from Connor Navrot and Bryton Fels at 11:40 to make it 3-1. Overall, it had been a dominating period for the Stars as they outshot Beardy's 21-8, but the Stars seemed to lose steam after the Beardy's goal.
The second period proved to be a much more even story on the score sheet as Beardy's outshot the Stars 16-15.
Both goaltenders, Brett Pongracz of the Battlefords and David Thiel of Beardy's, managed to keep every one of those pucks out of the net, however, and it remained 3-1 heading into the third.
It was 45 seconds into the third that Shumlanski provided some anxious moments for the Battlefords fans. He scored from Bryton Fels and Connor Navrot to bring Beardy's back to a goal down at 3-2.
It remained close the rest of the game and at one point a potential tying goal was thwarted as Beardy's hit the post. But finally the Stars got some breathing room on Kaelan Holt's marker from Traye Tkatchuk with 8:16 remaining, and held on for a 4-2 win.
Shots on goal were 52-38 on the night and not surprisingly, goaltenders Pongracz and Thiel were named the stars of the game.
Beardy's head back south to Notre Dame for their next action. The Stars return to action on Thursday night in Saskatoon against the Contacts at Schroh Arena.
