By Nathan Kanter

North Stars one loss away from elimination after falling to Bruins 5-2

Apr 3, 2018 | 12:25 AM

The Battlefords North Stars’ quest to stay alive in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs just got a lot more strenuous.

Already facing an uphill battle entering Monday’s action down 2-0 in their semifinal series to the Estevan Bruins, they then lost 5-2 in game three, and now face as tall a task any sports team has ever faced: the dreaded 3-0 series hole.

The toughest part? They played quite well on Monday, but still came away empty-handed.

“I thought we played our best game of the series,” North Stars head coach Brandon Heck said in the post-game interview on CJNB/CJNS. “We had a seven or eight minute lapse in the first period and then the start of the second we didn’t come out very well, but after that I thought the rest we were in control of the game.

“I felt we took over the game in the third and then we make a costly mistake but we kept fighting. Even when it went 4-2, we had a number of chances to make it 4-3.”

Rustlers Volleyball

Crusaders' Bell excited for next chapter with Lakeland College

9h ago

Nothing but Net

Vikings' standouts ready for national stage with Team Saskatchewan

12h ago

Missing person

Spiritwood RCMP searching for missing woman

15h ago

One of the biggest problems was a familiar one: solving Bruins netminder Bo Didur.

He was stellar yet again, this time turning in a 36-save performance. The 20-year-old from West Vancouver now has a 7-0 record in the playoffs, to go along with a 1.71 goals-against-average and .944 save percentage.

“We’re going to preach start, start, start and throw everything but the kitchen sink at him to start out and be real aggressive,” Heck said about what they plan to do in their do-or-die game four on Tuesday. “We’ve got to find a way to solve him.”

The Bruins also scored the first goal of the game yet again on Monday, something they’ve done in every game this series.

“I want to see how we play with a lead,” Heck said. “The NHL percentages when you score the first goal it’s over 75 per cent and I don’t imagine our level is that much different. Playing behind is tough and in playoffs there’s more pressure when you’re playing behind. We need to get that lead.”

Zach Goberis also stood tall for Estevan on Monday, scoring his team’s first three goals. It was his fourth career hat-trick, but first in the post-season. Goberis is tied for third in playoff scoring now with 11 points.

Jake Fletcher and Michael McChesney (empty-net goal) provided the other goals for the Bruins, while MacGregor Sinclair and Levi Kleiboer scored for the North Stars, who ended up outshooting Estevan 38-37.

Layne Young extended his playoff long point-streak to seven games with two assists, and now leads the post-season scoring race with 13 points. He also ended the regular season on a 16-game point streak.

While the team is now facing a near-impossible task, it’s nice to know the franchise has done it before.

In the 1999-2000 SJHL final against Weyburn, the North Stars erased a 3-0 series deficit to win their first ever league championship.

“We’re going to focus on the first one,” Heck said. “We’re going to have to play better than we did tonight and try to limit their chances. With the way their goalie is playing, we’re going to need to win 2-1, 3-1, that way, rather than 5-3. He’s tough to score on and their compete level and attention to detail in their d-zone has been better than ours.”

Game four goes Tuesday night right back at Affinity Place in Estevan at 7:30 p.m. NorSask North Stars hockey kicks off with the Ultra-Print pre-game show at 7 p.m. on CJNB/CJNS.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11