By Nathan Kanter

North Stars and Bruins semifinal series expected to be close

Mar 28, 2018 | 2:00 PM

While the two clubs are six hours from one another and not in the same division, the Battlefords North Stars and Estevan Bruins have faced off 10 times within the last year alone.

That’s because they met in last year’s Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) semifinals, where the top-seeded North Stars swept the Bruins in four straight, outscoring Estevan 23-8 in the series.

With the teams set to face off yet again in the 2018 SJHL semifinals, both North Stars coaches and players know this time around won’t be as easy.

“It’s going to be a hard series, as the final four should be,” North Stars first-year head coach Brandon Heck said, who was not around for last year’s sweep. “They’re a fast team and they’re also tough to play against. They can get on you quick. They’ve got some elite level players [with] two really, really good lines that can go off at any time.”

“A lot tighter league this year,” North Stars defenceman Levi Kleiboer added, who was part of last year’s championship squad. “Last year was a bit weaker, so this year you’ve got to bring it every night.”

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While the North Stars haven’t lost a playoff game since April of 2016 and are coming off a sweep of the Weyburn Red Wings, coach Heck repeated something on Tuesday he has been saying for much of 2018: “We haven’t peaked yet.”

While he said the club has played well individually, he has often seen them only buy into half their systems or, on other occasions where they do buy into them all, they execute them well but not perfectly.

“We haven’t put it all together. We’ve just put pieces and this group loves pressure,” Heck said, adding that he expects Estevan to provide that pressure ‘100 per cent.’ “I think we have the potential when the pressure gets high to step up our game.”

The North Stars were the only team in the SJHL this season to not lose three straight games all year (their worst losing streak was two games, which happened three separate times).

But the Bruins lost three straight or more just once (three straight in late Oct.) and finished the regular season with an 8-2 record before sweeping Kindersley in their quarter-final playoff round.

The season series between the Bruins and North Stars was tied 3-3, with each team winning twice in regulation and once in extra time.

“I would say they’ve changed the way they’ve played and are a lot more cognizant of the way they play defence,” Heck noted. “They’ve got good [defensive] buy-in right now.”

In their first 36 games of the year, the Bruins allowed 3.36 goals against per game. But in the 26 games since the calendar changed to 2018, the team has only allowed 2.54 goals against per game, an improvement of nearly a goal against per game.

That includes allowing just five goals against in the entire four-game series against Kindersley.

“At the start of the year, I think at the [SJHL] showacse, they were up 5-2 or something [on us] and in the third period we came back to win,” Kleiboer said, referring to the 8-6 win they had over Estevan on Sept. 25. “At the end of the year, they started tightening that up. I think it’s going to be a battle.”

In the first three head-to-head matches this season, the North Stars got 16 goals by the Bruins. In the most recent three contests, they only got eight goals by them (not including shootout goals).

Much of that improvement has to do with Bruins netminder Bo Didur, who was acquired at the Jan. 10 trade deadline and stopped 106 of 111 shots he faced in the quarter-finals against the Klippers: a .955 save percentage.

But the North Stars got past another hot netminder in the Weyburn series, scoring 14 goals on Arik Weersink, who entered with a .963 save percentage.

“I think we’re in a good spot. We had our setbacks and I don’t think we’re going to let anything get in our way,” North Stars forward Elijah Loon-Stewardson said, who had the overtime winner in game four against Weyburn. “We’ve got to play them physical. And play our game. We can’t get into their style of game. We’ve got to play ours… fast and physical.”

Coach Heck said all 24 North Star players practiced this week, including goaltender Taryn Kotchorek, Matthias Urbanski, and Troy Gerein, who each did not play in game four against Weyburn because of injury.

“[The] sweep was very important,” Heck said. “[It] gives guys time to rest and get our mind off hockey and then have plenty of time to refocus and move forward.”

The semifinal series kicks off Friday, March 30 at the Civic Centre.

“Home ice is big. We love playing here,” Heck added. “We’ve got a good home record. Best we’ve ever had so we want to use it to our advantage.”

Puck drop on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m., with NorSask North Stars hockey getting underway at 7 p.m. on CJNB/CJNS.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11