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North Stars destroy Bruins in final road trip game

Oct 16, 2016 | 8:19 AM

The Battlefords North Stars have responded to some serious adversity they faced this season.

After losing two straight games on Thursday and Friday, they came away with a 10-3 shellacking of the Estevan Bruins on Saturday.

“Any time you can score that many goals in a game, there’s lots to build off of and I think that’s what we’re going to take away from this game,” North Stars associate coach Braeden Johnson said following the team’s huge win, their ninth of the season. “The preparation and effort was there tonight and it definitely contributed to our success.”

The biggest key to that success was a quick start.

The North Stars haven’t won a game yet this season when trailing after one period, so getting their first goal was important. Midway through the first, they got things rolling with not just one but three goals in a span of 3:13.

First, Ben Allen used his speed to beat everyone to the puck and unleashed a backhander under the arm of goaltender Nathan Alalouf. Next was Troy Gerein tapping in a rebound on a power play. Finally, Layne Young ripped a wrister short side while racing down the far side wing.

“We kind of came out flying tonight and just kept with it all game,” Young said after the game. “It was a great bounce back after the first two nights, that’s for sure.”

The first two nights of the road trip, Battlefords dropped close games to Notre Dame and Weyburn, 4-2 and 4-3, respectively.

But on Saturday, the North Stars certainly kept up the pressure, outshooting Estevan 23-3 in the middle frame, while getting second period goals from Allen (again), MacGregor Sinclair, Brett Horn, and Coby Downs.

Allen’s second of the night was a rebound from the slot, while Sinclair’s was a picture perfect deke, going forward-backhand-forward and freezing goaltender Alalouf in the process before tucking it in.

Horn’s goal was thanks to a good cut to the net after a great rush from Connor Sych, and Downs’ goal was a one-timer rocket on the power play, which went 4-for-7 on the evening.

“All the lines stepped up tonight. Everyone was contributing,” Downs said. “On any given night anyone can put up points.”

In the third, goals came from Connor Logan, twice, and Keaton Holinaty.

In total, 11 different North Stars had multi-point nights.

Unfortunately there wasn’t only good news to report from the win. A hard hit by Bruin Jake Fletcher to star forward Reed Delainey forced him to leave the game. Logan Nachtegaele also took a knee-on-knee hit from Bruins defenceman Josh Rieger in the third period, forcing him to leave in considerable pain.

Both players will be evaluated in the coming days.

The team now has six days off before hosting the powerful Humboldt Broncos on Friday, Oct 21. The Broncos are 10-2-0-1 this season, first in the North Stars’ division, after beating Kindersley on Saturday 5-1.

 

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