The Battlefords North Stars offence was running on all eight cylinders Saturday night at the Civic Centre.
For the first time since a pair of home wins in October over the Kindersley Klippers and the Yorkton Terriers, the North Stars found the back of the net eight times on their way to an 8-3 win over the Weyburn Red Wings as they now hold a 2-0 advantage in their best-of-seven Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League quarter-final series.
“As the series goes on here, I think we’re starting to play a lot smarter on offence,” North Stars forward Connor Logan said. “We’re throwing pucks into better areas and good things are happening for us.”
“We were more relentless tonight, especially on the forecheck,” teammate MacGregor Sinclair added. “I think that’s what allowed us to get more goals.”
While the North Stars offence was clicking, head coach and general manager Nate Bedford is looking for some improvement on the defensive side of things after his team gave up three goals for the second straight game.
“We need to go back to what made us successful in the regular season, and that’s playing as a strong five-man unit,” Bedford said.
“Weyburn is doing a good job at scoring on their high-quality opportunities and that’s coming from some poor decisions on our end. We need to a much better job of preventing those chances.”
Ben Allen continued his strong start to the playoffs with his second straight two-goal night, as he moved into the SJHL playoff goal-scoring lead with four lamp-lighters in two games.
“It’s nice to be able to help the team out and get us ahead of Weyburn in the series,” Allen smiled.
“Our line (which includes Coby Downs and Layne Young) have been working hard on playing well in the defensive zone and getting out of our end cleanly. When we get into the neutral zone, everything seems to be clicking for us right now.”
Downs finished up the evening with three assists while Young had a goal and an assist each.
Sinclair also had a pair of goals in the victory, as he and linemates Troy Gerein and Logan Nachtegaele were dominant on the forecheck right from the opening whistle.
“We were clicking right from the start today, especially compared to how things went for us Friday,” Sinclair said.
“Those guys do whatever is asked of them and it was nice to see them get rewarded with a couple of goals,” Bedford added.
Levi Kleiboer, Keaton Holinaty and Logan also scored for the North Stars, while Taryn Kotchorek made 20 saves.
The Red Wings offensive output came from two players, as Braden Mellon potted a pair of goals and Ian Parker had a goal and an assist to move into the SJHL playoff scoring lead with eight points in five games.
Affiliated netminder Cody Levesque, who made his league debut in a relief role Friday, made his first career start Saturday and turned aside 30 shots in a losing effort.
“Everyone that was here tonight knows that the way that we played is not how our team is,” Red Wings head coach Wes Rudy said.
“We just didn’t show up, plain and simple. Our guys didn’t want it enough and Battlefords wanted it more. We might have been due for one of those games though, and I expect that we will bounce back the next time out.”
The series will now shift to Crescent Point Place in Weyburn, as both teams will return to the ice for Game 3 at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
“Our focus is going to be on cleaning up our mistakes on defence,” Allen said. “We need to do a much better job of getting back into our own end and helping our teammates out.
“The offensive side of our game is working well, but we need to be good at both ends of the ice in the playoffs.”
The fourth game in the best-of-seven affair will take place Tuesday in Weyburn at 7:30 p.m.
The next contest at the Civic Centre, if needed, would take place Thursday night.
In Saturday’s other SJHL playoff games, the Estevan Bruins, Flin Flon Bombers and Nipawin Hawks all took 2-0 advantages in their quarter-final series.
The Bombers fired 53 shots on goal at the Whitney Forum as they picked up a 4-1 win over the Notre Dame Hounds.
Rylee Zimmer led the way on offence for the Bombers with a pair of assists.
In Humboldt, Grant Baetsen scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner with less than four minutes to go as the Hawks defeated the host Broncos by a score of 3-1.
Brett Harasymuk led the way on offence with a goal and two assists, while SJHL most valuable player award winner Kristian Stead had a 39-save performance.
His only blemish came on a third period power play goal by Trevor Posch.
The Bruins had their second dramatic victory in as many nights against the Yorkton Terriers, as Michael McChesney found the back of the net with 1:54 left on the clock for the go-ahead marker in a 5-3 triumph in Yorkton.
Jason Miller scored twice in the third period for the Bruins, who were down 3-2 after 40 minutes of play.
All three series will resume play Tuesday in Estevan, Nipawin and Wilcox.
