The North Stars continue to impress and the most recent accomplishment to go along with their 26-5-0-2 record is a sweep of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's player of the week awards.
The player of the week was Blake Tatchell. The league's top scorer extended his point streak to 21 games, before it came to an end Saturday. Tatchell had four goals and two assists in four games last week.
The Battlefords' Kyle Hall, who appears to be finding his stride offensively, was an honourable mention for player of the week along with Dylan Smith and Taylor Reich of Estevan and Brandon Sloan and Jarett Zentner of Melfort.
The goaltender of the week was Graham Hildebrand. He won all three of his starts earning his league leading fourth shutout and allowing just one goal in each of the other two games. His goals-against average for the week was 0.67 and he posted a .963 save percentage. Mathew Smidt of Notre Dame, Patrick Johnson and Jesse Wilkins of Melfort were the honourable mentions.
The defenceman of the week was Woody Klassen, who had three goals and six assists in four games. Klassen has 18 points in 13 games since returning to the North Stars from the ECHL. The North Stars are 11-1-0-1 since Klassen's return.
Along with the player of the week awards, the SJHL announced the player of the month awards and, as expected, some North Stars were involved in the discussion.
The defenceman of the month was Brody Luhning. Luhning is averaging more than a point a game, as the North Stars were 9-1-0-1 during November. Luhning recorded four goals and 11 assists in 11 games.
Klassen was also an honourable mention for the monthly honour, as well as Lee Christensen of Melville and Jens Johnson of Weyburn.
Graham Hildebrand was an honourable mention for the goaltender of the month, which was won by Weyburn's Mitch Kilgore. Deven Dubyk of Humboldt and Warren Shymko of Yorkton were the other honourable mentions.
The player of the month was Ruseell Trudeau of Melville with teammates Jesse Mireau and Ian McNulty and Jesse Ross and Coltyn Sanderson of Weyburn the honourable mentions.
The rookie of the month honour went to Estevan's Ben Johnstone. Austin Yano and Taylor Reich of Estevan and Flin Flon's Devin Buffalo were honourable mentions.
As November is now in the past, so too is the first half of the SJHL season - with that comes the roster cut down date and there were a handful of transactions around the SJHL Dec. 1.
The biggest noteworthy trade would have to be Kindersley moving Taylor Duzan to the Humboldt Broncos for Matt McLeod who plays, AAA midget, and future considerations.
Two days before the cut down date, the Klippers traded co-captain and former AAA Star Jordan Hoffman to Weyburn for Brent Hermary Michael Statchuk and Kody Thue.
For a complete list of SJHL transactions got to sjhl.ca.
Finally, with all the recent success for the Battlefords North Stars they were once again on the move, as they jumped to fourth spot on the CJHL weekly rankings. Weyburn moved from 17th to 14th on the list while Humbolddt earned an honourable mention for the week.
