The last two games in which the Battlefords Midget Stars have earned at least a point has come against the two best teams in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.
Go figure. The cellar dwelling Stars beat the second place Beardy's Blackhawks Jan. 12 and most recently forced a tie with the first overall Saskatoon Contacts.
The Stars capitalized on some early chances and later relied heavily on goaltender Blair Mahon and some timely goals to keep them close.
Blake Young scored for the Stars 26 seconds into the game from Kihisis Derocher and Carter Danczak. It was Young's ninth of the season.
Six minutes later, Regan Yew scored his seventh of the season from Tyson Empey and Jordaan Braun.
The Stars tried to hang on defensively and led heading into the first intermission, but Rourke Chartier scored two goals in 40 seconds for the Contacts to tie the game.
The Stars' coach Lorne Neilsen called a timeout after the second goal to calm his team, as the Stars were tied after the first period.
In the second, Austin Glover and Rodney Southam scored to put Saskatoon up 4-2.
With less than three minutes left in the second, Brody Tatchell moved in on a breakaway and deked Ryan Parenteau in the Contacts' net to pull the Stars within a goal. Danczak had a nice blue-line to blue-line pass to assist on Tatchell's 12th of the season.
In the third period, the Contacts increased the lead to 5-3 and continue to generate scoring chances against Mahon, but he turned them away.
The Stars earned a power play, after an undisciplined interference penalty and made the Contacts pay. Derocher banged in his 12th of the season from Brock Weston and Austin Duzan to pull the Stars within a goal.
With 1:31 remaining the Stars broke out on the rush and Tatchell fed Danczak for a backdoor one-time pass and he made no mistake. Derocher also assisted on Danczak's team-leading 19th goal of the season.
The Stars and Contacts moved to a five-minute, four-on-four overtime period. On the first shift of overtime, Braun was called for cross checking. The Contacts went on the power play and that was when Mahon was at his best. He made several big saves on a mad scramble around his net on the penalty kill. The Stars were under pressure for the majority of the penalty kill and had the puck cross their goal-line, but the goal was disallowed because a Saskatoon player was in the crease.
The Stars killed off the penalty and held on for the 5-5 tie.
Mahon made 38 saves in 65 minutes while Parenteau stopped 30 shots.
The Stars snapped the Contacts six-game winning streak and will now face the 10th place Notre Dame Hounds in their next action, Saturday in Wilcox. Sunday, the Stars will be in Regina to face the ninth place Pat Canadians.
