The Battlefords North Stars (17-9-6-0) had a win and an overtime loss over the weekend, but deserved two wins.
Friday, the Yorkton Terriers (11-16-1-2) came to the Civic Centre, and walked away with two points after a 3-2 overtime win.
It was teddy bear toss night in North Battleford, but it was the Terriers getting all the chances in the early going, as they were on the power play for almost the first eight minutes of the game.
All the penalties eventually cost the North Stars, when Terriers captain Kailum Gervais scored his third of the year on a 5-on-3 man advantage, on a sharp angle shot on a pass from the point from Riley Hunt.
Nick Fountain brought the Civic Centre faithful to their feet five and a half minutes later, and brought the teddy bears to the ice when his point shot deflected off a Terrier in front of the net, and past Matt Kustra to tie the game at one.
Teddy bear toss is a staple in junior hockey across the country, where all the stuffed animals thrown on the ice are gathered and donated to charity.
The North Stars power play continued to be their achilles heel, and culminated with Hunt scoring a short handed goal mid-way through the second period. Adam Santoro and Dylan Baer were credited with assists.
The goal was even tougher to swallow, as Hunt should have been in the penalty box at the time. A minute earlier while on a 5-on-3 penalty kill, Hunt used his stick to throw a loose stick towards Ryne Keller at the point, which went uncalled by the officials.
Battlefords was 0-for-8 on the power play through two periods, and would finish the game 0-for-9.
The third period was where the North Stars came to play.
Baxter Kanter dropped the gloves with Daylan Gatzke after he boarded another North Stars player, and the fight seemed to spark Kanter's teammates.
The North Stars had control of the puck for seemingly the entire third period, and had a plethora of chances to tie the game, but Kustra stood as tall as his 5'9'' stature would allow him. He finished with 40 saves, many of them taking away what appeared to be sure goals.
The crowd was getting noticeably restless, waiting to pounce to their feet with every puck that came near the Yorkton goal.
Finally, Matthew Havens blew the lid off the pressure cooker that was the Civic Centre when he scored a beautiful goal all alone in front of the net to tie the game with 29 seconds to go.
Havens took a pass from Brendan Heinrich while streaking down the middle of the ice, and a defensive breakdown by the Terriers left him completely isolated in the slot. Havens faked a shot before going to his backhand, somehow beating Kustra over the shoulder for his second of the year.
The crowd was silenced by the Terriers in overtime however, as this time it was Yorkton who had complete control, and Dallas Rossiter scored his first goal of the season when he let go a slap shot from the slot, beating Spencer Trembley clean under the right arm just 52 seconds into the extra frame.
After the game, North Stars coach Kevin Hasselberg said the team couldn't keep up the momentum after Havens' late goal.
"We just didn't quite recover and get ready to go for that overtime," said Hasselberg. "We were really back on our heels, lost some big face-offs in our own end, and that's it, it's over."
Sunday in Humboldt was a different story.
The North Stars scored two power play goals against the Broncos (12-15-3-0) en route to a 5-2 win.
After a scoreless first period that saw North Stars captain Keller tossed from the game for a hit from behind, Fountain scored 1:21 into the second on the man advantage to give Battlefords the lead. Brady O'Sullivan and Connor Vermeulen tallied assists.
Four minutes later, Jarret Fontaine scored his eighth of the year to tie the game at one, with help from Ashton McLeod and Greg Moro.
Late in the frame, it was Havens and Jordan Townsend regaining the lead for the North Stars, as they scored 51 seconds apart for a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.
Heinrich extended the lead to 4-1, picking up his fifth of the year on the power play 1:09 into the third. The North Stars finished the game 2-for-9 with the extra man.
Connor Sych scored an empty net goal with 18 seconds left to make it 5-2, assisted by Logan Nachtagaele.
The North Stars are now off until back-to-back meetings with the Flin Flon Bombers (15-6-5-3) Dec. 19 and 20. Those games conclude the North Stars 2014 schedule, as they don't play again until January 8.
