The depth of the Battlefords North Stars was in full effect Saturday night at the Civic Centre.
Five different players found the back of the net as the North Stars picked up a 5-1 win over the Flin Flon Bombers and now hold a 2-0 advantage in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League final.
“There’s been times this year where we have been snake-bitten around the net,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said. “When that happens enough times, you kind of forget that you have that ability to score.
“Right now in the playoffs, we are doing a really good job of finishing our chances and we were able to find the back of the net tonight.”
In addition to the scoring ability of his team, Bedford was pleased with the physical aspect of the North Stars performance.
“If they were tallying up hits tonight, I think it would be really close between the two sides,” Bedford said. “That’s important, especially heading into Flin Flon. The guys aren’t backing down, and I like that.”
“Right now we’re all executing,” North Stars forward Logan Nachtegaele said. “Our forecheck is wearing them down, our goaltending has been amazing and we’re solid on defence.”
Nachtegaele, Layne Young, Reed Delainey, Keaton Holinaty and Coby Downs all scored for the North Stars, who now have a 10-0 record in the playoffs and have won 13 straight games dating back to the regular season.
Ben Allen and Cody Spagrud each had a pair of assists for the hosts.
Joel Grzybowski made 31 saves in the victory, with his only blemish coming late in the second period when Daylan Marchi blasted home a one-timer following a great feed from Brandon Lesko.
The Bombers outshot the North Stars 32-31 and have two five-on-three powerplays during the game, but were unable to cash in on their opportunities.
“There’s no way that was a 5-1 hockey game with how we played tonight,” Bombers head coach and general manager Mike Reagan said. “I liked our compete level and I thought we did a better job of creating things offensively, but we just haven’t had a bounce in this series.
“There’s a lot of fight and character in that dressing room, we feel confident though heading back home. We were down 2-0 to Nipawin in the semifinal and we were able to win that series. They say that you’re not in trouble until you lost at home, so we’ll have to take care of business there and hopefully have a chance to come back here and steal one.”
Brenden Newton turned aside 26 shots for the Bombers in the loss.
The battle for the Canalta Cup will now head to the Whitney Fourm Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. (North Battleford time) battle in Game 3 of the series.
“We’ve shown that we are capable of beating these guys, but now we’ll have to it in a tough atmosphere,” Bedford said.
“It’s there for the picking, but we’ll have to work harder than we have in the last two games.”
Game 4 will be held Wednesday night in Flin Flon.
