North Stars ninth straight win overshadowed by slow start

In the second, the Ice Wolves scored the first goal of the game thanks to a diving effort from Jared Blaquiere. Brett Horn would tie the game with a great deke in the corner followed by a solid drive to the net (and a lucky bounce), but after 40 minutes, it was truly anybody’s game.

“I think we were very slow with the first two periods,” North Stars associate coach Braeden Johnson said after the win. “I don’t think we were playing a team game at all. That’s been a problem, especially for the first period, in many of our games. It’s an issue that we’ve had and we’ve tried to address it.

“We’ve got to…find a way to fix it because with the win tonight it’s good, but I think there’s bigger things to be played for.”

In the third, the North Stars got an early goal from Cody Spagrud on a beautiful slapper glove side, and then got two power play goals from Keaton Holinaty.

Even with Spagrud’s go-ahead goal early in the frame, the North Stars were still evenly matched by the Ice Wolves, who only have two wins all season.

On Friday, the North Stars and Ice Wolves needed a shootout to decide the winner, but in that game Battlefords seemed to have a more consistent effort. In this one, it seemed to take until the third period for the team to really take it to the visitors.

“I think it starts with winning battles,” Johnson said. “The little battles and I think simplifying it. If you look at our two power play goals, it was just simple shots on net and crashing, going into the tough areas of the ice. That’s where we’re going to score the majority of our goals but I think the first two periods we were in no man’s land and we weren’t winning many battles. I think in the third we kept it as simple as possible and obviously we had a big third period.”

The second line of Keaton Holinaty, Brett Horn, and Connor Logan was solid again, combining for six points on the night.

That makes a combined 22 points in their last six games.

“Those guys take a lot of pride in their game and it definitely shows,” Johnson said. “Those guys are 20-year-olds in the league and I think you have to bring an element to the team and they definitely do.”

The defence was also solid at creating offence. Lots of shots missed, but eventually more and more were getting through as the game wore on.

Defenceman Kendall Fransoo, Connor Sych, and Levi Kleiboer each had an assist in the game. The assist for Kleiboer moves him into fifth in ‘D’ scoring in the league with 15 points.

“I think our ‘D’ did extremely well at getting pucks through,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately a lot of them missed the net but the ones that did hit the net, we were able to create an opportunity for our forwards to win those battles and those two power play goals were essentially from that.”

The North Stars have two days off before a home and home with their division rival Kindersley.

The Klippers are last in the competitive Finning Division at 9-10-1. The North Stars are first at 17-5-0.

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

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars ninth straight win overshadowed by slow start

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