There’s seemingly no slowing down the Battlefords North Stars.
After a pair of narrow wins earlier in the week, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League club turned in an impressive team performance Saturday at the Civic Centre, as they shut out the Kinderlsey Klippers 6-0 and cruised to their sixth straight victory.
“It was night and day compared to our last couple of games,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said.
“We focused on playing well defensively, and when you’re only up by a couple of goals after two periods, you can sometimes see guys at this level get away from the game plan to try and put the puck in the net. The guys stuck with it tonight, which was great to see.”
Thanks to Saturday’s victory the North Stars now have a record of 27-6-0-0 for the season.
They’ve also opened up a seven-point cushion over the Estevan Bruins in the race for first place in the SJHL standings.
The North Stars also haven’t allowed a goal in 123:19 of game action, with a late third period marker by Derek Patter of the Ice Wolves being the last one from an opposing team.
Joel Grzybowski made 19 saves Friday and Taryn Kotchorek turned aside 25 shots Saturday as both netminders earned their third shutouts of the season.
“Everyone’s communicating well in our end of the ice,” North Stars defenceman Connor Manegre said.
“We’re blocking lots of shots and we’re clearing the puck out of our own end on a regular basis. We’re not spending a lot of time in our end, and we’re all trying to do whatever we can to make our goalies jobs easier.”
Manegre was also a part of one of the big highlights on Saturday’s game, as he scored his first career SJHL goal in the dying seconds of the third period.
“The guys helped me out a lot on that one,” Manegre said. “They all knew that I didn’t have a goal yet, so they were just throwing everything on net.
“The puck was loose in front of their goalie and I had a wide-open net to shoot at. I kind of blacked out afterwards because I was so fired up.”
The North Stars had a spread out offensive attack Saturday with the other goals coming from Kendall Fransoo, Ben Allen, Bryce Hall, Connor Logan and Keaton Holinaty.
“We’re trying to prepare for the playoffs here,” Bedford said.
“The other coaches in this league are good at finding ways to shut certain guys down. If we are able to spread the goals around, that will make us more successful in the end.”
Fransoo, Allen, Hall and Holinaty all had a goal and an assist Saturday, while Coby Downs dished out two helpers.
The loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Klippers, who have a 14-21-1-0 record are two points ahead of the Melville Millionaires for the 10th and final playoff spot in the SJHL.
“We were outclassed by a very good team,” Klippers head coach and general manager Geoff Grimwood said. “I don’t think the North Stars are six goals better than us, but they were tonight.
“Every time we come to North Battleford, we realize how much ground we have to cover to be a good time like the one here.”
The North Stars will now enter a busy four games in five nights stretch ahead of the Christmas Break.
It begins on Wednesday and Friday when they welcome the Flin Flon Bombers to the Civic Centre.
After visiting the Terriers Saturday, they will travel to Melville Sunday for a date with the Millionaires.
