The Battlefords North Stars opening performance of the 2017 SJHL playoffs was a tale of two acts.
They started off strong in the first 30 minutes as they scored four goals, but the second half saw the Weyburn Red Wings nearly erase a three-goal deficit.
While the home team held on for a 4-3 win in the first game of their best-of-seven quarter-final series, North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford will be looking for more when his side returns to the Civic Centre for Game 2 Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
“You can’t take the foot off the gas pedal like we did tonight, otherwise you are going to be golfing sooner than you will have planned to,” Bedford said.
“I think some of that is my fault a little bit. I was having a little too much fun at times and that translated to them feeling the same before the final buzzer. Weyburn’s a team that doesn’t quit, and we saw that here tonight, so we’re going to tighten the reigns up a little bit here and work harder from start to finish tomorrow.”
In their first game since a 5-0 win over the Kindersley Klippers in the regular season finale on March 3, the North Stars showed very little rust early on as they controlled the run of play in the first half of the game.
Leading the charge was Ben Allen, who had two goals in his first game since February 24 when he was injured on a hit in a game since the Nipawin Hawks.
“It felt really good to get back out there and help the team out,” Allen said. “After missing the last couple of games of the regular season, it really felt like it was a long time coming to be playing with the guys again.”
“Ben’s a crafty little player that’s always capable of scoring and it was great to have him back out there for us,” Bedford said. “That line (which also includes Layne Young and Coby Downs) played pretty well tonight, and I expect them to have another good game tomorrow.”
Young finished up the evening with three assists, while Downs helped to set up an early power play goal by Keaton Holinaty.
Ryan Rosenberg had two assists in the second period of play, as his point shot was redirected by Troy Gerein and he fed the puck to a wide-open Allen a few minutes later.
Allen’s second goal of the night also ended the evening for Red Wings starting netminder Jake MacLennan, as he was pulled after allowing four goals on 22 shots in nearly 28 minutes of work.
“There was nothing wrong with how Jake played, but we didn’t support him out in front there and we needed to give the guys a wake-up call,” Red Wings head coach Wes Rudy said.
“We were really nervous and tentative in the first 30 minutes, but I thought the guys did a really good job of answering the bell when we had that adversity, and that bodes well for the rest of this series.”
With Carter Phair and Shaun Fleming both injured for the Red Wings, affiliated netminder Cody Levesque was thrown into the line of fire in his first ever SJHL appearance.
The 16-year-old from Carnduff, who played for the Swift Current Legionnaires in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League this season and was a sixth-round pick by the Calgary Hitmen in the 2015 Western Hockey League draft, preformed well his debut showing as he stopped all 16 shots he faced in 31 minutes.
“Cody’s been at some of our camps in the past so we know what we have in him,” Rudy said. “We did throw him to the wolves a little bit, but I thought he responded well to the challenge.”
The Red Wings’ late charge was led offensively by the second line of Tyran Brown, Connor Burk and Ian Parker.
Brown and Burk both had had a goal and an assist each, while Parker dished out two helpers.
“They are our energy line and they always compete hard,” Rudy said. “They did a great job, but there were several guys in our lineup that did the little things right.”
Aiden Wagner had the other goal for the Red Wings in the first period, as he slid a rebound from a Noah Wozney wrap-around attempt past North Stars goaltender Taryn Kotchorek.
Kotchorek made 26 saves to earn the win his SJHL playoff debut.
Friday’s other playoff games in the SJHL saw all three home teams in their quarter-final openers.
The most dramatic game took place in Estevan, as Zach Goberis scored 42 seconds into overtime to give the Bruins a 2-1 win over the Yorkton Terriers, who tied the game up on a goal by Jared Legien with just 1:04 to go in the third period.
Two-time SJHL defenceman of the year winner Eric Sinclair had a goal and two assists for Flin Flon Bombers as they picked up a 4-1 win at home over the Notre Dame Hounds.
Over in Nipawin, Josh Bly had a goal and an assist for the host Hawks as they fired 51 shots on goal in a 4-1 win over the Humboldt Broncos.
All three series will resume tomorrow with games in Flin Flon, Humboldt and Yorkton.
