The Battlefords North Stars had some unfamiliar faces in their lineup Wednesday night, as they travelled to Melfort to face the Mustangs, a Bauer Conference rival.
Both goaltenders, Casey Parker and Connor Creech weren't dressed for the North Stars, as they were out sick. The North Stars called up Ryan Rewerts and Rylan Toth from the Midget Stars. Rewerts is a list player with the North Stars while Toth's rights belong to Flin Flon, but they were gracious enough to allow him to dress as back up.
Rewerts turned away 20 of 24 shots, but the Mustangs won the game 5-2 after scoring an empty net goal.
Along with the goaltenders, there was another new face in the lineup for the North Stars. Forward Avery Van Blaricom, another affiliated player, skated with the North Stars at practice the day before and was in the lineup Wednesday against his former team. Van Blaricom played 53 games with Melfort last season and 11 at the start of this season.
Van Blaricom made it a full roster for the North Stars, as forwards Ryne Keller and Tanner Quinn are sidelined with injuries and defenceman Cody Bird and Kyle Schmidt were also scratches.
The North Stars had the first lead of the game, when Kyle Hall scored his sixth of the season shorthanded from Spencer Gosselin.
The Mustangs scored twice in the first period to take the lead, which they would never relinquish. Jay Aasen scored on a power play and Brennen Bosovich scored five-on-five.
Neither team scored in the second period, but two goals by Melfort's Godric Tham and an empty net marker from Brandon Sloan made the comeback attempt too much for the North Stars to overcome.
Battlefords Blake Young scored his first goal of the season from Dillon Forbes and Braeden Johnson between Tham's goals.
Patrick Johnson was the winning goalie making 30 saves.
With the win the Mustangs leapfrogged the North Stars and into fourth place in the Bauer Conference with an 8-12-0-1 record.
The 8-11-0-0 North Stars will be on home ice Friday against the 12-6-0-2 Notre Dame Hounds, whom the North Stars have beat twice this season.
