In their final regular season visit to the Elgar Petersen Arena this year, the Battlefords North Stars turned in one of their best road showings of the 2016-17 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season.
The Finning Division champions earned their 12th straight victory over the Humboldt Broncos Saturday as they skated away with a 3-1 victory.
“I thought we put in a full 60-minute effort,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said. “We fought through some adversity early on but the guys worked through it, and it turned out to be a really fun evening.”
The biggest challenge for the North Stars came early in the first period when Kendall Fransoo hit the showers early after getting a game misconduct penalty for a hit from behind.
“The most important thing out of that is that we killed off the penalty there,” Bedford said. “Whenever you lose a guy and then the other team scores, it can be hard to take. We did a great job of keeping our focus and regaining some momentum.”
“Losing a guy like Kendall is tough, but it’s a next man up situation for us. We’ve played games this year without guys like (Connor) Sych, (Troy) Gerein and (Layne) Young, so we’re used to making adjustments.”
Young and Coby Downs led the way up front with a goal and an assist each, while Reed Delainey also found the back of the net.
“Young, Downs and (Ben) Allen probably had their best game of the year tonight,” Bedford said. “They were buzzing every time they stepped on the ice and they were a ton of fun to watch.”
Taryn Kotchorek made 29 saves for his 22nd win of the season, with his only blemish coming on a third period goal by Luke Kempf.
With the win, the North Stars now have a 39-8-1-0 record and are 26 points ahead of the Broncos in the Finning Division.
They also have a 10-point cushion over the Flin Flon Bombers for top spot in the SJHL standings after the Bombers suffered a 3-2 loss to the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox Saturday.
The North Stars will be back in action Wednesday for a neutral-site game in Unity against the Kindersley Klippers.
The Klippers have won their last seven games, which is the second longest streak in the league at the moment behind an 11-game run from the Nipawin Hawks.
