It wasn’t quite the full 60-minute effort that Battlefords North Stars general manager and head coach Nate Bedford was hoping for Wednesday night.
Nevertheless, the North Stars bounced back well from a 5-1 loss in Yorkton a day earlier as they picked up a 4-1 win against the host Melville Millionaires in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League play.
“We definitely played better and we came out flying in the first period,” Bedford said. “We wanted to have a good start to the game and that’s exactly what we got.
“We did have a few lulls though on defence and that’s something I need to a better job of with those guys to help them play strong for a full 60 minutes.”
One of the keys to the North Stars performance was the power play as they scored three times with the man advantage.
“Three power plays is always good but going three for 12 with our group means that we have to get better still,” Bedford said.
“I think we need to do a better job of moving the puck around and being patient. I think we try to force things at times and we don’t need to do that. We have a lot of talent on offence and if we just let things come to us on the power play I think we will be successful.”
Layne Young scored twice in the victory, which gives him a league best four goals in four games, while Reed Delainey had a pair of assists.
Levi Kleiboer and Connor Logan also found the back of the net for the North Stars, who improved to 3-1 for the season.
Goaltender Joel Gryzbowski, who was reassigned to the North Stars on Monday after taking part in Saskatoon Blades training camp, turned aside 25 shots in his season debut.
“I thought Joel was really confident and you could certainly feel that from him,” Bedford said.
“He was really solid out there. He was being aggressive and not allowing a lot of rebounds. When those rebounds happened, he was able to get back into position quickly.”
Mathieu Jallabert had the lone goal for the Millionaires, who are in last place in the Viterra Division with a 0-3 record.
Brandon Wells was saddled with the loss following a 29-save performance.
Next up for the North Stars is a 7:30 p.m. home date with the Estevan Bruins at the Civic Centre Saturday.
That will be followed by two games at the SJHL Showcase in Warman. The North Stars will take on the Melfort Mustangs on Sunday and have a rematch with the Millionaires Monday afternoon.
Wednesday’s SJHL roundup
The Humboldt Broncos (3-0) had a dominant performance Wednesday night as they cruised to a 7-2 victory at home over the Yorkton Terriers (1-2-1).
Daniel McKitrick led the way with two goals and two assists while Logan Schatz dished out three helpers. Chris Van Os-Shaw also scored twice and had an assist.
Trevor Posch had a goal and an assist in the win with the other Broncos goals coming from Laramie Kostelansky and Dante Raposo. Rookie blueliner Antonio DiPaolo continued his strong start to the season with two assists.
Reid Anderson and Brandon Sookro scored for the Terriers in the loss.
In the other game, the Notre Dame Hounds earned their first win of the season with a 2-1 triumph over the Weyburn Red Wings in Wilcox.
Rookie forward Adam Dawe led the way on offence for the Hounds (1-2) as he scored a goal and had an assist on Jacob Arsenault’s marker.
Ben Duperreault picked up two assists and Payton Porter made 27 saves for his first SJHL win.
Tyran Brown had the only goal for the Red Wings (2-1) in the loss while Nathan Hargrave made 26 saves.
Friday’s SJHL schedule
- La Ronge vs. Flin Flon – 6:30 p.m.
- Nipawin vs. Humboldt – 7:30 p.m.
- Estevan vs. Kindersley – 7:30 p.m.
- Melville vs. Notre Dame – 7:30 p.m.
- Melfort vs. Weyburn – 7:30 p.m.
