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North Stars eliminated after sweep from Kindersley

Another season has come and gone for the Battlefords North Stars. Their quest for a championship came to an abrupt halt Wednesday night with a 4-0 loss to the Kindersley Klippers in their opening round match up.
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Another season has come and gone for the Battlefords North Stars.

Their quest for a championship came to an abrupt halt Wednesday night with a 4-0 loss to the Kindersley Klippers in their opening round match up.

The Klippers outscored the North Stars 22-4 in the four game sweep.

For the fourth consecutive game the Klippers scored first when Darcy Deroose beat Tremblay with 1:27 left in the period.

It was Deroose’s fifth goal of the series.

The Klippers power play was the North Stars kryptonite over the course of the four games, as the Klippers doubled their lead 13:38 into the second period on a power-play goal by Shaun MacPherson.

Despite outshooting the Klippers 28-25 through two periods, the North Stars found themselves in a familiar position, trailing Kindersley after two periods.

While the Kindersley power play may have been a determining factor in the series, the North Stars power play couldn’t reciprocate, finishing the series 0-for-30.

Battlefords continued to battle in the third period, throwing pucks towards Klippers goaltender Evan Weninger regularly.

While the Kindersley goalie shot out a lot of rebounds, there never seemed to be a North Star in the right position to pounce on it.

3:44 into the third Tyler Anderson’s slap shot from the point beat Tremblay to give the Klippers a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead.

After that goal the Klippers seemed content playing defensively, often holding back instead of jumping up into the play.

The North Stars had a pair of power play opportunities in the third, but on the second it was the Klippers scoring.

After Kindersley was called for too many men, the North Stars pulled their goalie for the extra attacker.

Fifty seconds later, the Klippers captain MacPherson slapped the puck out of his own zone and it rolled all the way down the ice into the empty net to seal the North Stars' season.

It was a somber mood on the North Stars bench as the clock counted down as they realized their season, and for five players their junior careers, were over.

Michael Statchuk, Tremblay, Brenden Heinrich, Jake Erickson and Nick Fountain are all ineligible to return next season because of their age.

The players piled onto the ice after the final buzzer sounded to shake hands and salute the home crowd one final time.

Statchuk, the North Stars captain, stood at the door leading down the hall to their dressing room giving each one of his teammates a hug before they headed off the ice for the final time.

After the game, a visibly emotional head coach Kevin Hasselberg discussed each of his players who won’t return next season.

“Mike (Statchuk) was just a calming influence in the dressing room,” he said. “He has experience playing in big games and it’s easy to say we brought him in as a player but I think more importantly we brought him in as a person.”

Erickson was out of the lineup for the majority of the post-season, but Hasselberg says his future is as bright as can be.

“Jake’s perseverance, work ethic and determination, all those intagibles that make quality people, Jake has them all,” he said.

It was announced after game three of the series that Erickson will be playing at Air Force NCAA Division 1 beginning next season.

Heinrich spent two years with the North Stars after playing junior B in British Columbia, and will also be heading to the NCAA next season with Norwich Division 3.

“The one thing that sticks out in my mind about Brenden is his consistency,” Hasselberg said.

Tremblay’s junior career saw him suit up for eight different teams in five different leagues, but his consistency throughout the season was the reason the North Stars brought him in.

“I think the adversity he’s faced in his career, to come in and play the way he did for us and give us a chance to win, that speaks volumes,” Hasselberg said.

Fountain stepped up his game in the playoffs with seven goals and three assists in nine games.

“He’s a young man who doesn’t complain and doesn’t make excuses,” said Hasselberg. “He rolls with the punches, and he took a lot of punches, he gets up with the right attitude and I’m a better coach because of it.”

He finished off reflecting on the season as a whole, as his emotions came to a head.

“It’s a journey of cliché at this point but you want to win so badly for this community,” Hasselberg said, fighting off tears. “We had such a good hockey team and it makes for a long summer. We don’t want it to end but that’s the way it goes. You have to pick yourself back up and get back to work the next day. I just want to say thank you to all the fans for supporting us and I wouldn’t trade these past four years for anything.”

The North Stars will begin their quest for another championship when the 2015-16 season begins in September.