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North Stars wrap up regular season with 11th straight win

Mar 6, 2016 | 9:19 AM

The Battlefords North Stars historic regular season came to an end with a 3-2 win over their biggest rivals as they set a new franchise record for fewest regulation losses in a season with 11.

After a 3-0 shutout over the Kindersley Klippers Friday, the North Stars went to the West Central Events Centre looking to finish off the home-and-home by sweeping the season series with their division rivals.

Things didn’t start off well for the North Stars. They had trouble connecting with passes in the first period. The Klippers hemmed the North Stars in their own zone for extended periods of time throughout the opening 20 minutes, before they were able to find the back of the net late in the frame.

Austin Calladine stepped around the North Stars defender at the blue line and came down the left wing with a lane to the net. He let go a perfectly placed wrist shot, beating Tyler Fuhr over the glove to give the Klippers the lead with under a minute and a half left in the period.

Klippers goalie Nathan Hargrave robbed Dustin Gorgi in front of the net with a desperate glove save earlier in the period to keep the North Stars off the board through the opening period.

Early in the second Hargrave again took away a sure goal when a shot from Connor Sych deflected to the side of the net for Coby Downs. The North Stars forward had a wide open net but Hargrave’s paddle came across to slap the puck away, keeping his team in the lead.

It took until the mid-way point of the game for the North Stars to solve Hargrave. Conor Jensen took a shot from the point and it hit a body in front. Gorgi chopped at the rebound and beat Hargrave over the blocker to tie the game at close to the halfway mark of the second period.

The score stayed that way through 40 minutes, but not long after. Just 35 seconds into the third period, Rory Davidson came down the left wing before firing a wrist shot past the glove of Hargrave to give his team the lead.

A scary moment occurred five-and-a-half minutes into the third as Klippers defenceman Clive Rozdeba hit Gorgi from behind into the boards. The North Stars forward was slow to get up and was in obvious pain as he was helped off the ice and taken to hospital for precautionary reasons.

The play gave the North Stars a five-minute power play, though they were unable to take advantage. Shortly after the penalty expired however, the North Stars got another power play.

Right off the face off Kendall Fransoo slid a pass over to Sych at the left point and he hammered a one timer towards the goal. Baxter Kanter was planted in front, and got a piece of the shot to beat Hargrave and extend the North Stars lead to 3-1.

Klippers centre Calladine was a one man wrecking crew Saturday night as he had four breakaways, three of them shorthanded. He was finally able to capitalize on his fourth, on a very sneaky play.

After a faceoff win in the Klippers end, a Kindersley player bolted to the bench and Calladine jumped onto the ice behind the North Stars defenders. He took a pass from Boedy Donald and beat Fuhr through the five hole to score his second goal of the game and cut the lead to 3-2.

That was as close as the Klippers would come, and the North Stars held on for their 43rd win of the year to close out the regular season.

The North Stars finished the 2015-16 campaign with a 43-11-2-2 record, good for 90 points which is one shy of the franchise record of 91 set in the 1995-96 season. That year the North Stars also set their franchise record with 44 wins, though they played 64 games that year compared to the 58 the team played this season.

 The team is now off until March 18 when they begin their quest for the Canalta Cup. Their first round opponent is still to be determined. It could be either the Klippers, Notre Dame Hounds or Yorkton Terriers.

The good news for the North Stars is they went a combined 17-0-0-1 against those three teams during the regular season, the lone blemish being a shootout loss to Notre Dame at home on October 24.

cjnbsports@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @craig_beauch