The Battlefords AAA Stars experienced the numerous highs and lows of life in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League over the span of four days.
They suffered a gut-wrenching overtime loss to the Beardy’s Blackhawks Thursday, came away with a shootout win on the road against the Swift Current Legionnaires Saturday and then were on the wrong end of the scoreboard to the Notre Dame Hounds Sunday.
Special teams played a key part in Sunday’s 6-2 loss at the Civic Centre to the defending SMAAAHL champions, as the Stars were forced to kill off 13 penalties.
“If you look at when it was five-on-five out there, it was a 1-0 game,” North Stars head coach Jean Fauchon said. “We proved that we can hang with the top teams in this league if we play our game and not deviate from that.
“We can’t be in the penalty box and expect to win against teams like that, as they are going to capitalize on those opportunities.”
Nolan Renwick had three assists for the Hounds in the win while Stanley Cooley potted a pair of goals.
Connor Nagel and Tye Scherger both scored on breakaways for the Stars while Joseph Young made 40 saves in the loss.
Saturday night saw the Stars stage a dramatic comeback in a 4-3 shootout win over the Legionnaires at the Credit Union iPlex.
Parker Gavlas tied the game up with just 35 seconds to go in the third period, while Jaden Shewchuk scored the winning goal in the fourth round of the shootout.
“Swift Current took the lead with a few minutes remaining and our guys could have easily folded up their tents and said here we go again,” Fauchon said.
“They battled back to tie the game up and they worked really hard in the overtime. Three out of our four shooters scored in the shootout and the guys really deserved to get that win.”
Ian Hillis and Luke Reid each had a goal and assist for the Stars in the win while Lance Alm made 45 saves.
Ethan Regnier, Rin Beny and Jacob Piller all scored for the Legionnaires.
The comeback win on Saturday made up for a stunning collapse Thursday night at the Civic Centre.
Despite holding a 5-1 lead in the second period, the Stars allowed the Blackhawks to score five unanswered goals on their way to a 6-5 victory.
“I thought we did a lot of good things in this game but we have to be willing to stick to the game plan for a full 60 minutes,” Fauchon said.
“We were very strong in the first 45 minutes, but then we just let up at the end of the third. They’ll learn from it for sure and will continue to work on the little things that we didn’t execute on at the end of the game.”
The Blackhawks scored twice in the final two minutes to force overtime, with the game-tying marker coming from the stick of Billy Taraback with just three seconds remaining.
After the North Stars almost scored twice, Jaxon White completed the comeback with 2:26 remaining in overtime as his shot from the slot went past Alm.
“It was just an old fashioned shootout out there,” Blackhawks head coach Dale Grayston said. “We haven’t gotten the lucky bounces as of late, but we were finally able to find a way tonight.”
Jared Hamm led the way for the Blackhawks on offence with a goal and two assists while Tian Rask dished out three helpers.
The Stars were led on offence by a three-point night from Jordan Mish, who had a goal and two assists.
Hillis potted a pair of goals in the loss while Reid and Dayton Buchanan also scored.
Although the Stars are in 10th place in the league standings with a 6-10-2 record, they are just one point out of a five-way tie for fifth place.
They will be facing one of the teams in that logjam on Thursday night as they’ll pay a visit to the Art Hauser Centre to face the Prince Albert Mintos and begin a four game road trip.
The Stars will visit the Beardy’s Blackhawks on Dec. 1 before a two-game weekend series against the Tisdale Trojans on Dec. 3 and 4.
They will return to the Civic Centre on Dec. 6 to face the Mintos.
