The same old issues plagued the Battlefords AAA Stars Tuesday night at the Civic Centre.
Ill advised penalties proved to be costly for the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League team as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Saskatoon Blazers.
“We deserved every penalty that we got tonight,” Stars head coach Jean Fauchon said. “It was selfish play on over half of the penalties that we had.
“It caused us to lose the momentum that we had built up and if we want to have any success here, we need to play a game where we stay out of the box. It’s starting to become really frustrating, especially with a game that we should have won as instead of being a point out of fifth, we’re now a point out of 11th place.”
A play that summed up the night for the Stars occurred late in the third period, when Jordan Mish received a four-minute penalty for butt-ending a Blazers forward prior to the face-off.
“That’s the type of thing that I’m talking about,” Fauchon said. “You can’t be taking a penalty like that, especially when we’re down 3-2.
“Now we find ourselves down by a couple of goals and in a tough situation to pull the goalie. You can’t have that.”
It was the fourth straight loss for the Stars, who have a 12-17-2 record and are in a tie with the Swift Current Legionnaires for the eighth and final playoff spot in the SMAAAHL standings.
With the win, the Blazers are now in a tie with the Beardy’s Blackhawks for 10th place and are only a point behind the Legionnaires and Stars.
Luke Reid led the way on offence for the Stars as he scored 22 seconds into the game and also had an assist on Adam Beckman’s goal in the second period.
The Blazers offence was a two-pronged attack as Braden Krzak and Jaydon Dureau both had a pair of goals.
“I really like the way we responded to the physical play that Battleford brought,” Blazers head coach Randy Smith said. “We made some adjustments and we were able to adapt to their forechecking.
“Consistency is the biggest thing for us right now at this point of the season. There are times that we play well for a period, but then we lose focus. We’re a team that can’t play anything other than 60 minutes.”
Battlefords North Stars defensive prospect Matthew Fletcher had two assists in the win.
Next up for the Stars is a road game Sunday afternoon against the Blackhawks.
