Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

North Stars eager to get playoffs underway

Mar 16, 2018 | 3:20 PM

After a week off, the Battlefords North Stars will kick off their quarter-final playoff series tonight against the Weyburn Red Wings at the Civic Centre.

The Wings edged the Melville Millionaires in the survivor series Wednesday night, thanks to rookie Cade Kowalski’s overtime winner in game three and goaltender Arik Weersink, who made 125 saves on 130 shots in the three games.

North Stars head coach Brandon Heck said those two players will definitely be factors in this series, but noted the bigger focus for the North Stars is on themselves.

“We want to watch and know our opponent, but we also want to play our game and not stray from that and adjust,” he said after Friday’s morning skate. “We want to make teams adjust to us.”

Forward Cole Johnson, who recorded 35 points in just 23 games since coming to the North Stars at the January trade deadline, said he watched Weyburn’s survivor series but who won didn’t really matter.

“We don’t really care who we play right now,” he said. “We’re going to go out and give it our all every night.”

With Weersink riding the hot hand, Johnson said getting traffic and lots of shots will be key, but noted that’s been preached all season long.

“When you do that, things go in and things happen and things open up,” he said. “That’s our gameplan: we’re going to get a lot of shots tonight and see where it goes.”

The good news for the North Stars is they appear to be getting healthy at the right time. Five forward lines and all eight defenceman skated Friday morning, with nobody wearing a non-contact jersey. For Heck, it means there are tough decisions to make about who plays and who sits.

“It’s nice to have the options, but it’s tough scratching good soliders,” Heck said. “Extremely hard decisions. I can’t tell you how hard it is and how hard our week of practice was.”

Heck said the team touched on just about everything in the past week of practice, from their forecheck to both special teams to the neutral zone to their D-zone.

Now, it’s all about execution.

“It’s go time here now. There’s no messing around,” Johnson said. “We’re ready to go tonight and we’re going to put on a show.”

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11