With a pair of victories on home ice over the weekend, the Battlefords North Stars are heading into the holidays in a good mood.
Following a 3-2 triumph Friday against the Melfort Mustangs, the reigning Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions wrapped up the first half of their schedule Saturday evening with a 5-1 win over the Flin Flon Bombers at the Civic Centre.
“That’s another big four points for us,” North Stars head coach and general manager Brandon Heck said.
“We didn’t play well in the first period of both games this weekend, but we were able to fight our way back and refocus on the task at hand. We had much better efforts in the final 40 minutes on Friday and Saturday, which paid off for us in the end.”
After falling behind 1-0 in the first period when Bombers forward Dylan Burton found the top corner of the net on a backhander, the North Stars offence came to life with three goals in the second stanza and two more in the final frame.
“I think that really shows the character of our team and the willingness we all have to buy in and focus on the task at hand, especially with the Christmas break coming up,” North Stars forward Keith Anderson said.
“I still feel like we have better hockey to play as a team, but the main key to our game against Flin Flon was to chip puck out and keep things simple. We also did a great job of playing well while having the lead in both games this weekend, which is something we wanted to get better at.”
Anderson led the way up front for the North Stars as he scored two goals and had an assist to put him at 18 points in 18 games.
“Things are clicking at the moment but you can’t set out to sea and expect smooth waters the whole time,” Anderson said. “Right now, I’m just keeping focussed on what’s ahead.”
Matthias Urbanski and MacGregor Sinclair also scored in the win, which saw defenceman Matthew Fletcher pick his first career SJHL goal.
“I had been gripping my sticks pretty tight here lately, but it was great to get the goal out of the way when Layne [Young] made that great back door pass to me in front of an open net,” Fletcher said.
“I think Layne was more excited about his roommate scoring than Matthew was,” Heck added.
Young and Brad Girard each had two-assist for the hosts, who received a 29-save performance from Taryn Kotchorek.
Brendan Newton turned aside 27 shots for the Bombers, who have a 9-17-1-3 record and are just five points ahead of the Yorkton Terriers for the 10th and final playoff spot in the league.
While the Bombers are once against proving to be a tough team to play against in the Whitney Forum, their trips away from Flin Flon have been a major challenge as they have a 1-11-0-1 road record ahead of a pair of games against the Kindersley Klippers on Monday and Tuesday.
“We know that this game can play well on the road, but it’s just a matter of this group choosing to have that strong effort away from home, which we haven’t seen at times,” Bombers assistant coach Gary Childerhose said.
“I thought we had a really strong start tonight against Battlefords, but then we got a little bit complacent and started to get into penalty trouble. We still have two games left before Christmas and hopefully we can take care of business in Kindersley.”
The North Stars will head into the holidays with a 24-5-2-0 mark and will hold a four-point lead over the Notre Dame Hounds for first place in the Global Ag Risk Solutions Division.
They will also hold the second seed in the league standings behind the Nipawin Hawks, though that gap might expand to six points Tuesday night when the Hawks will attempt to pick up a road win over the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
After spending time with friends and family over the next couple of weeks, the North Stars will return to action at the Civic Centre on Friday, Dec. 29 in a 7:30 p.m. battle with the Klippers.
That game will also mark the return of defenceman Levi Kleiboer to the roster, as he earned a gold medal with Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge in Truro, N.S. Saturday.
