It had taken either overtime or a shootout for the Battlefords North Stars and Humboldt Broncos to break a tie in their three previous meetings this year.
Tuesday’s encounter at the Civic Centre was no exception.
Troy Gerein played the role of the hero in the latest battle between the Olympic Buildings Division rival, as he found the back of the net in overtime to give the North Stars a 3-2 win and their fourth win over the Broncos during the course of the 2017-18 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season.
“You don’t want to lose three games in a row so we made sure that we got the two points tonight,” Gerein said.
“It wasn't the prettiest game, but we found a way to win.”
That feeling was shared by North Stars head coach and general manager Brandon Heck, who was looking for a stronger effort out of his squad following a 5-2 loss to the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox Saturday.
“I don’t think a lot of guys broke a sweat out there,” Heck said. “If you compare it to football, everyone wanted to be the quarterback and nobody wanted to be the offensive linemen.
“It wasn’t a great game played by us and our goalie [Joel Grzybowski] won us the game.”
When the North Stars offence had troubles breaking down a stingy Broncos defensive unit, Grzybowski came up big in his best performance since rejoining the North Stars after a stint with the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades.
The Hafford native made 29 saves to improve to 3-0 for the campaign, with his best stop coming late in the second period as he slid across the crease to rob Broncos forward Conner Lukan.
“He made three or four saves tonight that a lot of goalies don’t make in this league,” Heck said.
“Joel definitely held us in there,” Gerein added. “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think we’d have had a chance to come away with the win.”
Gerein, who is playing on the blueline for the North Stars for the first time since his rookie campaign due to Levi Kleiboer playing for Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, sent the fans home in a happy mood as he found the back of the net for only the second time this season just 66 seconds into the extra frame.
“I was backchecking [Logan] Schatz when I got the puck in our end,” Gerein recalled. “I fed it up to [Layne] Young and he chipped it into the corner for [Matthias] Urbanski.
“He had behind their net and I was able to sneak by their defence to move into the slot. I got a nice feed from Urbanski, and their goalie [Parker Tobin] was looking to see what he was doing, so I just tried to shoot it to the far side.”
While the North Stars celebrated, Broncos head coach and general manager Darcy Haugan was fuming on the bench and pleading his case to the officials, as he felt Young’s lob pass to Urbanski should have been whistled down for icing.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win tonight, but we came out on the wrong end of the stick once again to them,” Haugan said.
“I thought we played a structurally sound game, especially after a slow start, but we didn’t hold the lead and that’s something that’s happened to us lately against the North Stars.”
Jaxon Joseph had both goals for the Broncos, who have a 16-9-3-2 record and are six points back of the North Stars for first place in the Olympic Buildings Division, while Tobin made 20 saves.
Chaseton Braid and Young also found the back of the net for the hosts, who received a two-assist performance from Dakota Huebner.
The 20-5-1-0 North Stars, who regained the division lead with the win and a 3-0 loss for the Hounds in Wilcox against the Kindersley Klippers, will go out on the road this weekend for a pair of games against the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
