It’s been a long wait for Battlefords North Stars captain Kendall Fransoo to return the ice after being sidelined with a knee injury on Feb. 22 during a game against the Kindersley Klippers.
He made up for lost time Friday night at the Civic Centre, as he opened the scoring for the North Stars in his 2017 playoff debut in an 3-0 win over the Flin Flon Bombers in Game 1 of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League final.
“A shift before that I shot the puck from the red line and it ended up going completely over the glass,” Fransoo said.
“It took a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things, but I was pretty fired up to get that goal in my first game back.”
Fransoo and the rest of the North Stars turned in their best defensive showing of the playoffs Friday as they limited the Bombers to 19 shots on goals and helped Taryn Kotchorek earn his first shutout of the post-season.
“The team played great in front of me and I didn’t have to make a ton of big saves,” Kotchorek said after improving his playoff record to 7-0. “They were able to make things easier for me, especially when it came to seeing their point shots.”
“We sacrificed a ton out there,” Fransoo added. “We had guys blocking shots all the way until the final minute and we didn’t care where the puck was going to hit us, as long as it didn’t hit our goalie.”
Keaton Holinaty extended the North Stars lead early in the second period as he redirected a pass from Ben Allen.
Connor Sych completed the scoring midway through the final frame on the power play, as his point shot took a strange bounce and floated over Bombers goaltender Brenden Newton.
“Our game plan was to play well in on our end, which we did, and we matched them very well on the physical side of things,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said.
“We got good goaltending from Taryn and it was a great team game from start to finish.”
Coby Downs had an assist on Fransoo’s first period goal and now has 21 points in nine games to lead the SJHL playoff scoring race.
His linemate Layne Young was held pointless but remains in second place with 18 points in nine games.
Newton, who took over the starting duties from Zac Robidoux midway through the Bombers eventual seven-game semifinal series win over the Nipawin Hawks, was the stand-out performer for the visitors as he made 37 saves.
“We looked like a team that was coming off a grueling seven-game series,” Bombers head coach and general manager Mike Reagan said. “We were hoping that the two days off would be enough, but it was pretty appearance when we looked at the bench that the guys were hunched over and tired.
“We didn’t play very well tonight but we know that we are a better team than that. Hopefully we can get that energy back here tomorrow.”
The Bombers also lost the services of forward Nate Hooper late in the second period after a hit by Troy Gerein, who was given a five-minute major penalty for head contact and a game misconduct.
The status of Hooper’s condition, who was helped off the ice after the play, was unknown after the game.
Both teams will return to the Civic Centre Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. for the second game in the best-of-seven series for the Canalta Cup.
