The Battlefords North Stars (22-15-6-1) took to the road for a one-game trip against the Humboldt Broncos (17-21-5-0) yesterday hoping for a rebound performance from their last game against the Nipawin Hawks (27-12-2-3) Saturday.
In that game the North Stars were down 3-0 after the first period.
It wasn't any better last night.
Down 4-0 after one period, the North Stars were unable to solve Broncos goaltender Jack Romanuik and were shut out 5-0.
It took just four minutes for the Broncos to beat Spencer Trembley when Joshua Bergen scored his second of the year from Anthony Kapelke and Matthew Kenney.
Five and a half minutes later, Kenney added a goal of his own to double the Broncos lead to 2-0 just 10 minutes into the game.
After Igor Leonenko took a penalty for crosschecking with just over four minutes left in the period, Gage Joel made him pay by scoring on the power play with Kenney and Jon Brumwell picking up the assists.
The North Stars couldn't escape the period down by just three, as with 23 seconds remaining Greg Moro added to the Broncos’ lead with help from Gray Marr and Ryley McNeil.
Allowing four goals on 10 shots, Trembley began the second period on the bench and Ryan Rewerts took over in goal.
Jarrett Fontaine extended the Broncos’ lead even further when he scored his 11th of the year nine minutes into the second period with Marr and Kapelke drawing helpers.
Rewerts played solid through the final two periods, stopping 18 of 19 shots.
Battlefords received four power plays throughout the game, but were unable to solve Romanuik who stopped all 28 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season.
After the game North Stars head coach and general manager Kevin Hasselberg was quick and concise on his thoughts of the game.
"It's a test when you run into those situations," he said about his team being down 4-0 after the first period. "It is what it is and you have to move on."
He wasn't pleased with back-to-back slow starts by his team.
"We'll break this game down and we have to find a way to change that up and it starts now," he said. "Every game is huge and we have to get that message through to our guys."
The North Stars have Thursday off before getting back at it Friday against the visiting Melville Millionaires (21-19-2-2.)
The last time these two teams met was back on Dec. 2, a 6-2 Millionaires win in Melville
