With the second seed in the playoffs already wrapped up, the Battlefords North Stars found themselves in an interesting situation to conclude their 2017-18 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season Friday.
In a matchup with the top ranked Nipawin Hawks, both sides dressed a younger lineup and rested some of their key players at the Hawks picked up a 5-3 win at the Centennial Arena.
“As a coach, it was a good chance to see some of our younger talent and it also allowed us to put some of our experienced players in pressure situations and give them some more ice time as a result,” North Stars general manager and head coach Brandon Heck said.
Dakota Huebner returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 19 and led the way on offence with a goal and an assist.
Brad Girard and Dylan Esau also scored in the loss, while Jake Davidson made his first career SJHL start and turned aside 29 shots.
“I thought Dylan had a really good game as an affiliated player and I thought Connor Manegre was outstanding tonight on the blueline,” Heck said.
“Connor was strong on pucks and calmed things down out there. He played like a 20-year-old and made everyone better around him.”
Grant Baetsen and Michael Grant each scored twice for the Hawks, who received a pair of helpers each from Jordan Simoneau and Thomas Lenchyshyn.
Adam Beckman, who led the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League in scoring this season with the Battlefords Stars, had a goal and an assist in the win, which saw Declan Hobbs make 21 saves.
The North Stars, who clinched their third division title in February, wrapped up the campaign with a 42-14-2-0 mark and will now wait to see who their opponent will be in the quarter-final round, which is expected to get underway next Friday night at the Civic Centre.
“We left a few games on the board to miss out on a chance of having this game with Nipawin mean something tonight,” Heck said.
“With that said, it was a pretty solid year for us and we’re hoping to get better as the playoffs get underway.”
Their opponent will be the highest seed of the four teams that will square off in the best-of-three survivor series, which will get underway Sunday and conclude Wednesday at the latest.
The seventh ranked Weyburn Red Wings will be facing the 10th seeded Melville Millionaires, while the other matchup will featured the eighth ranked Notre Dame Hounds battling it out with the ninth seeded Flin Flon Bombers.
The Hawks will face the lowest seeded team that advances from those series.
Meanwhile, the other two quarter-final series are set in stone with the third ranked Estevan Bruins taking on the sixth seeded Kindersley Klippers and the fourth ranked Melfort Mustangs squaring off with the fifth seeded Humboldt Broncos.
The Yorkton Terriers and La Ronge Ice Wolves rounded out the standings and missed out on the post-season.
Prior to their trip to Nipawin, the North Stars wrapped up their home slate in style with a 5-2 win over the Klippers Thursday as they picked up their 16th straight win at the Civic Centre over their biggest rivals.
It was also a nice bounce back for the North Stars as they suffered a 5-2 road loss to the Klippers two nights earlier.
“Coming into this game we made sure that we played at a fast pace and that we had quick transitions,” North Stars captain Layne Young said.
“Kindersley does a good job of trapping and we wanted to make sure that we moved the puck up the ice before they could get things set on defence.”
Cole Johnson turned in a dominating performance for the North Stars as he had a goal and two assists in the win, even though he was stymied on multiple occasions by Klippers goaltender Zach Johnson.
“Brandon preaches shooting pucks on net and that was something we had been getting away from lately,” Johnson said.
“We were shooting from everywhere tonight and if you generate enough chances, good things will happen.”
Keith Anderson, Matthias Urbanski, Levi Kleiboer and Girard rounded out the scoring for the North Stars, who received a pair of assists from Parker Smyth and a 25-save performance from Taryn Kotchorek.
The Klippers got goals from Noah Turanski and Nikolas Malencia in the loss, which saw Johnson turn aside 32 shots.
“The biggest thing for us was to make sure that we got out of here injury free before our series against Estevan,” Klippers head coach and general manager Geoff Grimwood said.
“I don’t think we’ve made a healthy scratch since October and we’re just getting everybody back into the lineup now. Our record has shown that with how well we’ve played since Christmas and with a clean slate for the playoffs we’re excited to see what happens.”
