Normally, 41 shots would be enough to win a hockey game.
That wasn’t the case for the Battlefords North Stars in Yorkton Tuesday night.
The North Stars suffered their first loss of the 2016-17 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season at the Farrell Agencies Arena as they dropped a 5-1 decision to the host Terriers.
“Having 41 shots looks good on paper, but their goalie saw the majority of those shots and they weren’t great scoring opportunities,” North Stars general manager and head coach Nate Bedford said.
“Anytime you have less than 30 shots against and you allow five goals, that’s not good enough. It was a mix of not getting big saves when we needed them, and our defencemen and forwards not playing the complete game that you need to win in this league.”
A one-goal contest was blown wide open in the third period when the Terriers found the net three times on just five shots.
That all occurred while North Stars captain Kendall Fransoo was in the penalty box to serve a 10-minute misconduct.
“If you’re not willing to compete and play an up and down game, you are not going to do well in junior hockey,” Bedford said.
“I don’t mind losing when we play the right way and we play within our system. But I certainly don’t like it when we do selfish things, take selfish penalties and aren’t willing to compete.”
Reed Delainey scored the only goal for the North Stars (2-1) on a power-play marker in the first period.
Levi Kleiboer and Austin Shumanski had the assists on Delainey’s second goal of the season, while Ryan Rewerts made 21 saves in the loss.
The Terriers (1-1-1) were led on offence by a two-goal performance from Brandon Sookro. Corwin Stevely and Jordan Hudson both had a pair of assists with the other goals coming from Carson Welke, Matthew Perkins and Dexter Robinson.
Maggio turned aside 40 shots to earn first star honours in his SJHL debut.
Next up for the North Stars will be a road game Wednesday night against the 0-2 Melville Millionaires.
Gryzbowski joins North Stars
The North Stars crease has become slightly crowded as they wrap up the first week of the regular season.
Returning netminders Ryan Rewerts and Taryn Kotchorek are now joined by 17-year-old Joel Gryzbowski, who was reassigned to the North Stars from the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades Monday.
“Joel’s a competitive kid and he has all the confidence in the world to do well.” Bedford said.
“We’ll see how everything plays out here with the three guys and we’ll get to see how Joel does in goal here soon.”
The Hafford native had a 17-12-1 record with a 2.63 goals against average for the Saskatoon Blazers of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League last season.
He made 21 saves to earn the win in his only SJHL start so far in a 5-2 win over the Notre Dame Hounds on Dec. 5, 2015 at the Civic Centre.
Sunday’s SJHL recap
Tuesday’s contest between the North Stars and Terriers was the first game since Sunday in the SJHL.
The Humboldt Broncos moved to 2-0 on the season in Wilcox as they picked up a 5-2 win over the host Notre Dame Hounds.
Trevor Posch had a pair of goals in the win while Michael Korol had a goal and an assist.
Daniel McKitrick and Nikolas Malencia also scored for the Broncos while Conor MacLean and Ben Duperreault found the back of the net in a losing effort for the Hounds.
Weekly award winners
The SJHL handed out its first player of the week awards of the 2016-17 season for the period ending on Sept. 18.
Estevan Bruins forward Lynnden Pastachak received the player of the week accolades with five points in two wins over the Melville Millionaires.
Reigning SJHL defenceman of the year winner Eric Sinclair picked up right where he left off as the Melfort Mustangs blueliner had five points in two victories over the La Ronge Ice Wolves to earn the defenceman of the week award.
Nathan Hargrave of the Weyburn Red Wings was named goaltender of the week after stopping 62 of the 64 shots he faced in a pair of wins over the Yorkton Terriers.
The rookie of the week honours went to Antonio DiPaolo of the Humboldt Broncos after he earned an assist in his league debut against the Notre Dame Hounds.
Wednesday’s SJHL schedule
- Yorkton vs. Humboldt – 7:30 p.m.
- Battlefords vs. Melville – 7:30 p.m.
- Weyburn vs. Notre Dame – 8 p.m.
