The defending SJHL champs had a rough time of it Saturday night against the streaking Battlefords North Stars.
The North Stars got over a slow start to score three unanswered goals, and took down the Yorkton Terriers 3-1.
The game marked six wins in a row for the North Stars and moved them into a tie with Humboldt for second in the Kramer Division with 48 points, just four behind the Kindersley Klippers.
Still, North Stars coach Kevin Hasselberg resisted the temptation to get too excited.
"We try not to get too caught up in all of that, we just want to take it one day at a time," said Hasselberg, noting their focus in this game was playing well against this particular opponent.
"There's a reason why they're defending champions and they definitely have some threatening players out there."
Yorkton got off to a fast start in the game, with Brett Boehm scoring his 18th of the season from Tyson Enzie and Holden Cronin, for the only goal of period one. Shots on goal were 13-10 Terriers after one.
In the second, the North Stars tied it on Kyle Schmidt's power play goal from Jake McMillen and Luke McColgan at 3:23.
That was followed up by Blake Young's 14th of the year at the 6:17 mark. McMillen then salted it away at the 5:33 mark of the third, with the assist from Schmidt, on a power play, powering the North Stars to a 3-1 final score.
It was another solid outing for Michael Gudmandson in net for the North Stars, who stopped 32 of the 33 shots he faced. The North Stars fired a grand total of 35 shots at Riley Medves, who took the defeat in net for Yorkton.
The game capped what was Alumni Day for the North Stars organization as they welcomed back their former players for a reunion alumni hockey game during the afternoon. That event was held to mark the 40th Anniversary season for the Battlefords in the SJHL.
It was also the first action for the North Stars after the SJHL trade deadline. The North Stars were one of those active on deadline day Friday, as they shipped Austin Evans to the Flin Flon Bombers in exchange for Cameron Blair.
Blair made an impact right away for the North Stars, assisting along with Ryne Keller on the Blake Young goal.
Hasselberg explained the reasons why the deal was made.
"Cameron Blair is a four-year player in this league. He's a phenomenal player, he brings an element to our hockey team both on the ice and off the ice."
"Tonight you've seen how he can control the play down low. He won some very important faceoffs throughout the hockey game and certainly we're going to lean on his experiences to make us better as the playoffs come."
As for the game that evening, Hasselberg credited strong work on special teams and some good individual efforts on the night. "I thought Dillon Forbes was phenomenal tonight," he said. "He controlled our own end and made sure pucks were getting out and he challenged the guys to pick up their play, and that's what we need from our leaders right now."
With this win out of the way the North Stars can now relax for a few days as their next game is against Notre Dame at the Civic Centre Friday night, and then again in St. Walburg Saturday as part of the Hockey Day in Saskatchewan celebrations.
"Notre Dame's going to be very hungry," said Hasselberg of their division rivals. "It's going to be a lot of fun and certainly we're going to enjoy the time to prepare for that hockey team.
