A trip to the southern part of the province proved exactly the tonic to end the losing ways of the Battlefords North Stars.
The North Stars took five of a possible six points and have a two-game win streak now following a dramatic and tension-filled weekend swing through Estevan, Notre Dame and Weyburn. It was a rollercoaster for the North Stars because all three games went to overtime, and two went to a shootout after that.
An especially disheartening 3-2 shootout loss to Estevan was followed by thrilling 3-2 wins against Notre Dame and Weyburn. The win over the Hounds came in overtime while the victory over the Red Wings was a come-from-behind shootout victory.
The two wins end an eight-game losing streak that had tested the emotions of everyone associated with the North Stars.
"We were happy to get five out of the six points," said a relieved coach Kevin Hasselberg about the weekend action. "Obviously as an organization we needed that weekend."
The North Stars now hope to end another streak - winless at home - when they take on Weyburn again at the Civic Centre Friday night. On the positive side, the team has played well away from the Civic Centre all season, with the two most recent wins lifting the team to 6-6-0-1 on the road.
The first game of the trip was in Estevan versus the Bruins, and the North Stars came out firing as they looked determined to end their recent slide.
The visitors took a 2-0 lead on goals by Ben Greenaway at 5:14 of the first and then by Reed Delainey from Igor Leonenko and Blake Young to start the second.
It was in the second that a Ryne Keller hit on Nick Egan shattered the glass along the boards, causing a lengthy delay in the game for several minutes during that frame.
That incident seemed a turning point of sorts, because it was after that strange things began to happen, again, to the North Stars.
Hudson Morrison got the first Estevan goal from Ben Johnstone and Nick Egan to narrow the margin to 2-1 after two periods. The North Stars then worked hard to preserve that narrow margin through the third period, but despite their best efforts they simply couldn't extend the lead against a hot Bruins net minder Brett Lewchuk.
With time ticking down and the North Stars holding on to their one-goal lead, the Bruins were forced to pull Lewchuk and put the extra attacker on the ice in the final minute. With just three seconds left on the clock, Austin Daae scored from Zach Douglas to beat Darren Martin. To the shock of the North Stars players, the game was suddenly tied at 2-2.
Overtime solved nothing and the game went to a shootout, with each team sending eight shooters out to try to win the game.
Both Tanner Froese and Austin Roesslein beat North Stars goalie Darren Martin in the shootout. Austin Evans scored for the Battlefords in the shootout, but when Kyle Schmidt couldn't put one past Lewchuk, the North Stars ended up staring at the wrong end of a 3-2 score, their eighth loss in a row.
For the North Stars, who had outshot the Bruins by a 44-31 margin on the night, the fact that they got one point for sending the game to extra time was no consolation.
"It was that we had played so hard and so well and with so much determination, and to have it taken away from us in the form of not getting the result that we wanted could have been extremely devastating, and at the time it was," said Hasselberg.
"There were a lot of emotions being felt. What's heroic about the whole situation is they came back less than 24 hours later and went back to work again and were able to persevere under similar circumstances in both of the next two games."
The North Stars were back at it the following night in Wilcox against Notre Dame Hounds. This time they got plenty of encouragement from members of the Battlefords AAA Sharks, who were fresh off a game in Wilcox that afternoon. They stayed to cheer on the North Stars.
They had much to be excited about early in the game, as the North Stars' Robin Carlson scored from Taylor Reich to make it 1-0 at the 6:44 mark. The Hounds tied it at 1-1 in the second, though, on a goal by Sam Aulie with three minutes left in that frame.
With the North Stars' Ben Greenaway getting an instigator penalty along with a fighting major for an incident with Austin Lightfoot midway through the second, a goal by Ian Williams made it 2-1 Hounds. But the North Stars tied it on a Regan Yew goal from Latrell Charleson at 14:36.
The rest of regulation time solved nothing and the North Stars were again forced into overtime to settle things. This time, the North Stars took matters into their own hands and ended the contest at the 4:44 mark. Reed Delainey scored from Dillon Forbes to earn a 3-2 win to end their eight-game losing streak.
Seeing Forbes notch the assist on the winning goal pleased Hasselberg, who noted it was their veteran players who had taken the loss to Estevan the hardest. Both Forbes and Tanner Quinn were on the ice when Estevan had scored with three seconds left the previous night.
"Under the circumstances of the disappointment he experienced personally, to see him contribute to help the team win that game, it obviously put your soft spot in your heart for a player like that," Hasselberg said of Forbes' effort.
As for the reaction after the game, "it was relief, I think on everybody's front," said Hasselberg.
"Winning in that fashion, in overtime in the last minute, it was a relief and we enjoyed every minute of it."
The final game for the North Stars on the road trip was down the road in Weyburn on Sunday afternoon. For a while, though, things did not look promising in that contest.
Goals by Josh Lees and Ty McLean in the second made it 2-0 for the Red Wings through two periods, but the North Stars refused to quit.
Charleson's goal at 5:42 of the third period from Igor Leonenko and Jack Petrino narrowed the margin to 2-1 and then Brenden Heinrich tied things up at 2-2 at the 18:32 mark, and the game went to overtime.
With overtime solving nothing, the North Stars faced their second shootout in three days. But this time the team came through. The third Battlefords shooter, Austin Evans, beat Weyburn goaltender Rylan Parenteau, and with the North Stars' Casey Parker stopping all three Weyburn shots it was the North Stars who took the shootout, and the game, with a final score of 3-2.
The North Stars outshot Weyburn Sunday by a 37-29 count. Overall, Parker stopped 27 of the 29 shots fired at him Sunday. Hasselberg pointed to the efforts of both goaltenders, Parker and Martin, over the three games and said the weekend was pivotal for both of them "emotionally and mentally."
Coming back from two goals behind was another positive from Sunday's game. Hasselberg pointed to the club's resilience in the Weyburn game as "remarkable."
"Our guys lived it, and they experienced it and it's going to make them stronger," he said
The North Stars now have a 6-12-1-1 record for 13 points on the season, and look forward to a home date with Weyburn Friday night at the Civic Centre.
"We have been knocked down a lot over the last two weeks and these kids keep getting back up," Hasselberg said.
As for preparations for their return match with the Red Wings, Hasselberg says the North Stars plan to treat their next match as just another game and that the team plans to "stay focused" on the task at hand.
