A month into the 2016-17 regular season, the Humboldt Broncos have already established themselves as the team to beat in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The Battlefords North Stars were sure to let their Finning Division rivals know that they are hot on their heels.
In their first meeting of the year, the North Stars came away with an impressive 5-1 win over the Broncos Friday night, in front of 1,150 fans at the Civic Centre.
“We were relentless on the puck and we were really focused about working things down low,” North Stars forward Layne Young said. “(General manager and head coach) Nate (Bedford) always says that we play our best game below their circles and that’s what we did today.
“It was really the same approach as it has been for us over the last few weeks. If we’re hard on pucks and we’re able to create turnovers, we can capitalize on their mistakes. Humboldt’s top line is very dangerous, but we did a great job of not giving them a lot of chances today.”
Coby Downs led the way on offence with two goals and two assists while Young potted a pair of goals late in the opening frame and helped to set up Downs’ power play goal in the third period.
Ben Allen had the other goal for the North Stars with a highlight reel breakaway goal in the second frame.
“I thought we did a great job of sticking to our game plan,” Bedford said.
“We were smart out there and we kept things simple. We limited Humboldt to four or five scoring chances and that was a result of having a good defensive effort.”
Parker Wakaruk gave the Broncos the lead with a little over three minutes to go in the opening frame, but the visitors had all of the momentum taken out of their sails after Young scored a pair of goals in two minutes to give the North Stars a 2-1 cushion after the first period.
“At the end of the day, we just weren’t good enough,” Broncos general manager and head coach Darcy Haugen said. “We didn’t bury our chances and their top guys came through for them.”
The North Stars, who have an 11-5-0-0 record and are three points back of the Broncos for top spot in the Finning Division, won their third straight game Saturday with a 3-0 shutout over the host La Ronge Ice Wolves.
“I’m a big advocate of making sure that our goals against is low, so to get a shutout on the road is always good,” Bedford said. “It was a really good team effort from start to finish.”
Taryn Kotchorek, who is splitting time between the pipes with Joel Grzybowski, made 28 saves for his second shutout of the season.
“The shots that we allowed were from the outside for the majority of the game and Taryn did a really good job of making big saves when we allowed prime scoring chances,” Bedford said.
“When you combine both of those things, you’re going to be successful most of the time.”
Downs led the way on offence with a goal and an assist while McGregor Sinclair picked up a pair of assists.
Young and Owen Lamb also found the back of the net in the road triumph.
The North Stars will be at the Civic Centre for the next three games, starting with a 7:30 p.m. tilt Tuesday with the Kindersley Klippers.
They will then host the Yorkton Terriers Friday before entertaining the Notre Dame Hounds Saturday.
