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North Stars crush Hawks 8-1 in pre-season

Sep 7, 2016 | 9:42 AM

On Tuesday night, a flurry of second period goals led the North Stars over the Nipawin Hawks, in what turned out to be a lopsided 8-1 final.

The victors continued their winning ways this pre-season, as they are now 3-0-0. They have 17 goals for and just six against in those three games.

New acquisition Connor Logan stood out in this one, netting the first two goals of the Sept. 6 game, which got the North Stars off on the right foot. He also added an assist.

“It’s a great group, so it makes my job pretty easy,” Logan said after the game. “I want to play an offensive role because I think that’s what I do best.”

Head coach Nate Bedford pointed out Logan’s offense is not his biggest contribution.

“It’s too bad people don’t appreciate the things he does off the ice,” Bedford said of Logan. “If he’s not being productive on the ice somewhere down the road, how he is on the bench and in the dressing room is equally and probably even more important.”

Calgary native Tayden Woods also stood out on Tuesday night.

Woods was a new addition to the top line – alongside Logan and Layne Young – and made a statement, scoring two goals and adding two helpers for a four-point night.

“[I had] great line-mates; they really helped me out today,” Woods said. “Tonight it was nice to get rewarded.”

Logan and Woods weren’t the only ones to find the back of the net, as captain Kendall Fransoo, Keaton Holinaty, Connor McIntosh, and Tysen Smith also scored.

An eight-goal outburst wasn’t exactly drawn up in the game plan, but Bedford stressed avoiding a lull in the middle frame. It’s something he witnessed in the previous wins over Bonnyville.

On Tuesday there was no lull, as the North Stars scored four unanswered second period goals and allowed just three shots against.

“We had talked about the fact that we have [had a lead] before,” Bedford said. “We didn’t discuss trying to score as many goals as we did today, that wasn’t our goal. Our goal was to be as hard working as we possibly could [and] do the little things right.”

Woods said one of the keys to not letting up was taking short shifts.

“If we keep our shifts short, we can keep our energy and we can keep going the whole game,” Woods said.

Unfortunately despite the win, cuts will still have to be made to the team.

Making cuts is “a little bit harder because guys played so well, but eventually you’ve got to trim your roster,” Bedford said. “The good thing is when you’re finding success this early in the year, I think these guys have an opportunity to go somewhere else and play.”

Woods said all players can do is work their hardest.

“Everything else is out of their hands,” he pointed out.

Cuts could come as early as Wednesday, as the goal is to have a finalized roster before Friday’s pre-season game against the Kindersley Klippers.

Then on Saturday, the Klippers travel to North Battleford to complete the home and home, and finish off the pre-season.

 

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11