With a three-goal outburst in the third period Tuesday, the Battlefords AAA Stars find themselves back at .500 and are currently riding a three-game win streak.
Despite improving to 4-4 for the season and moving into a tie with the Moose Jaw Generals for eighth place in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League standings, Stars head coach Norm Johnston was still looking from more from his side after their 6-4 win over the Saskatoon Blazers at the Civic Centre.
“We still have a lot of work that we need to do,” Johnston said. “We were behind a few times tonight and we got outshot pretty badly.
“They were up 10-1 in shots on us in the first 10 minutes and I called a timeout to get them to wake up. They did in the last two periods, but if we played a structured game all the way through, we’d be a pretty good hockey team.”
Tuesday’s game was the total opposite performance from what Johnston saw last Thursday in Saskatoon, when the Stars shutout the Blazers 2-0.
“There was a lot of structure from the team in that game in Saskatoon,” Johnston said. “There was nothing like that tonight. There were too many goals and too many shots allowed.
“You have to work hard in this league and play the system if you want to do well. We got too many guys struggling right now.”
Adam Beckman scored the game-tying and game-winning goals for the Stars on Tuesday in a two-minute span in the third period.
Ty Mossiman led the way up front with a goal and two assists, while Tye Scherger, Dylan Esau and Damon McKenzie also scored.
Ian Hilis had a pair of assists in Thursday’s road win over the Blazers, as he set up goal for Esau and Matt Allardyce.
Joseph Young made 26 saves to earn the shutout in that contest and Carter Serhyenko made 39 saves in the rematch Tuesday.
“Both of them are playing really well and stopping pucks for us,” Johnston said. “I felt bad for Carter tonight as he let in four goals, but he still had a really good game in facing over 40 shots.
“Carter has three wins at the moment and Joseph only has one, but that’s kind of the way the puck has been bouncing for them lately. I like what they’ve brought us so far.”
The Blazers were led on offence by Blake Allan, as he scored a goal and had two assists in the loss.
Josh Nagy, Christian Albertson and Michael Spafford also found the back of the net, while Adam Dmyterko made 28 saves for the Blazers, who have a 2-7 record and are tied for 11th in the league standings with the Notre Dame Argos.
“We’re struggling with a lot of parts of the game right now,” Blazers head coach Scott Scissons said.
“We have had some injuries but that’s something that every team deals with. Only having two wins in nine games isn’t good enough.”
The Stars will now head out on the road for the next four games, starting with a pair of contests against the league-leading Tisdale Trojans Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
“That’s a really good club,” Johnston said. “We need to go in there and play strong on defence, have great goaltending and get a few goals in order to win.”
After the trip to Tisdale, the North Stars will travel to Wilcox to face the Notre Dame Hounds and Notre Dame Argos on Nov. 4 and 5.
