For the first time since Oct. 14, the Battlefords North Stars have lost a game away from the friendly confines of the North Battleford Civic Centre.
Despite firing 41 shots on goal, the top team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League were unable to solve goaltender Kristian Stead as the Nipawin Hawks picked up a 2-0 win Sunday evening.
The loss snapped the North Stars four-game win streak and their run of 13 consecutive road victories.
“I didn’t like our start a whole lot,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said. “We were fairly passive in the first 10 minutes and we were letting them come to us instead of dictating the pace.
“After that though, I thought it was a pretty even game between two teams. The better team won today and we’ll have to make a few adjustments here, especially with our starts and our overall offence.”
Although the North Stars outshot the Hawks by a 41-27 margin, Bedford felt like most of the shots were easy ones for Stead to stop.
“He made some big saves and you have to tip your hat to him, but he was able to see a lot of the pucks and we didn’t do a good enough job of creating traffic in front of the net,” Bedford said.
“We need to adjust how we’re entering the other team’s zone and what our plan is once we do. I think we’re little erratic and all over the place at the moment with that part of our game.”
The Hawks offence came from their top line of Brandon Arnold, Josh Bly and Eric Bolden.
Bly opened the scoring just 29 seconds into the game while Bolden found the back of the net early in the second period.
Both goal scorers also had an assist and Arnold dished out a pair of helpers for the Hawks, who have won eight straight games.
Taryn Kotchorek got his third straight start for the North Stars Sunday and made 25 saves in the loss.
After being called up in a backup role with the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades the last two nights, Joel Grzybowski rejoined the team for the game in Nipawin.
He is expected to get the start for the team in their return to the Civic Centre Friday when they’ll host the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
