North Stars shut down Mustangs offence in 3-2 win

The result was too many high-quality scoring opportunities for the Mustangs, who scored two goals on 10 shots in the opening frame.

“If you start worrying about the 1-on-1 matchup that someone else is involved in and you go try to help them out, that’s when we start getting in trouble,” Wakelin explained. “If each individual just takes it upon themselves to win their 1-on-1 battle, we’re the most successful.”

With Friday’s win and Tuesday’s overtime loss to Nipawin, the North Stars took three of a possible four points from the top two teams in the league (other than themselves).

“When you’re matching up against the best teams in the league and you can come out with three of four points, you’re obviously going to be happy,” Wakelin said, as the team now has a 23-5-2 record through 30 games and four-point cushion for first in the division with three games in hand. “The bounce back effort I thought was great tonight, especially right before Christmas break.”

Another big plus from Friday was a power play that finally started to get its groove back.

It entered the game with an ugly 1-for-21 stretch in the last six games, but finished Friday a solid 2-for-5, thanks to goals from Dakota Huebner and Lamb.

Wakelin said the numbers leading into Friday weren’t anything to worry about.

“Every team goes through stretches where their power play goes a little cold. We didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything,” he said. “Just talked to the guys about moving the puck down low a little more and that’s going to open up up high and that’s exactly what happened on the first goal.

“When you’re getting it and just zipping it up [to the point] instead of making the penalty killers think, then it’s pretty easy for them to just stay in those lanes.”

The first power play goal came following a rebound that Huebner smacked home for his 12th goal of the season to give the North Stars a 2-1 lead.

Lamb’s power play goal was scored on a 2-on-1 rush just 17 seconds into the second, after MacGregor Sinclair fed him a pass that Lamb deposited low and into the net.

“Not to take away from anyone else…but best player on the ice is what I would say about [Lamb’s] game,” Wakelin said. “Puck retrieval, blocked shots, got the big goal, he just does it all…It’s awesome to see a guy like him getting rewarded for all of his efforts.”

After not recording a point in his first 22 games this season, Lamb now has three goals and two assists in his last eight games.

Without Grzybowski making some fantastic saves, the game also wouldn’t have ended the way it did.

The 18-year-old Hafford native is now 5-0 this season with a 1.79 goals-against-average and .925 save percentage.

“He battled. A couple of those saves — huge. Not a couple, there were a few, especially in the first period,” Wakelin said. “We were not doing a very good job of picking guys up in the slot. They had a bunch of quality scoring chances and he just did a great job of giving us a chance to win.”

The North Stars will host the Flin Flon Bombers on Saturday night at the Civic Centre in their final game before the winter break.

Flin Flon lost 5-2 to La Ronge on Friday and is struggling this season with 9-16-1-3 record.

“I expect the guys to bring the same effort they brought tonight.” Wakelin said. “It’s been a rivalry since as long as I can remember. If you can’t get up for that one because Christmas break is right around the corner, then that’s an issue.”

The Bombers will not have Chrystopher Collin in the lineup for the same reason the North Stars are without Levi Kleiboer, as both will be playing in the gold medal game at the World Junior A Challenge in Truro, N.S.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars shut down Mustangs offence in 3-2 win

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