The Battlefords North Stars are now in a holding pattern.
After concluding their 2016-17 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season with a 5-0 win over the Kindersley Klippers at the Civic Centre Saturday, the North Stars aren’t expected to take to the ice again for almost two weeks as they wait to find out who they will play in the quarter-final.
The North Stars, who finished the regular season with a league-best record of 48-9-1-0, will play the lowest remaining seed that comes out of the Survivor Series playoff round that begins Thursday.
One best-of-five matchup will see the eighth seeded Weyburn Red Wings battle the ninth ranked Klippers, while the seventh seeded Notre Dame Hounds will do battle with either the Melfort Mustangs or the Melville Millionaires.
The Mustangs currently lead the Millionaires by a single point for the 10th and final playoff spot ahead of both teams’ regular season finales Tuesday.
“Rest and refocus is the biggest thing for us right now,” North Stars general manager and head coach Nate Bedford said. “We’ve had a grueling 58 game regular season, which has been a successful one for us, but now we have to gear up to get 12 wins in the playoffs.
“It’s good to have that break, but we’re going to have some pretty aggressive practices I’m sure before our next game so that we are still playing well when the playoffs begin for us,” North Stars goaltender Taryn Kotchorek added.
In addition to winning their last three regular season games and nine straight on home ice, the North Stars also finished 10-0 against their Olympic Building Division rivals this year thanks to their win Saturday.
“I don’t think we’ve lost a regular season to them for a couple of years now, so that’s a pretty good accomplishment for us,” Kotchorek said.
A night after his goaltending partner Joel Grzybowski made 27 saves to earn his sixth shutout of the season, Kotchorek had a stellar performance of his own as he turned aside all 35 shots he faced.
“The communication with the defence has been key for both of us here lately,” Kotchorek said.
“Giving up 35 shots on goal is a little more than usual for us, but the defence were blocking lots of shots and that was awesome.”
Coby Downs scored a pair of goals in the victory, while Blake Fennig continued his steallar debut weekend for his hometown team with a goal and an assist.
“The whole weekend was awesome,” said Fennig, who scored his first career SJHL goal Friday in Kindersley.
“Playing for the North Stars is something that I’ve wanted to do since I started playing in Pee Wee, and the guys on this team have really taken me in here and made me feel like one of their own.”
Bryce Hall and Reed Delainey also scored for the North Stars, while Levi Kleiboer had a pair of assists.
Nick Trenciansky made 30 saves in the loss for the Klippers, who finished the regular season with a 25-30-3-0 record and enter the playoffs with a two-game losing streak.
The SJHL regular season will conclude Tuesday with three games on the schedule.
The biggest matchup will take place in Flin Flon, as the Nipawin Hawks do battle with the host Bombers to determine who wins the Sherwood Division and enters the playoffs with the second overall seed.
The Hawks currently lead the Bombers by two points in the race for the division title. Flin Flon will need to win in regulation Tuesday to win the tiebreaker between the two sides, or they’ll finish in fourth place in the league standings and play the Humboldt Broncos in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, the race for the final playoff spot will also come down to the final day of the regular season, as the Mustangs visit the Broncos and the Millionaires will play host to the Estevan Bruins.
In order to sneak into the playoffs, the Millionaires will need to beat the Bruins and have the Mustangs lose in regulation time.
One other quarter-final series is already etched in stone as the Bruins will play the sixth-ranked Yorkton Terriers.
