The Battlefords North Stars are in the middle of a six-game stretch at their home rink, and so far it has taken the fans on a big emotional rollercoaster ride.
The run of games at the Civic Centre began Friday night with a deflating, last-second home defeat to Estevan in a shootout, only to rebound the following night in a wild one against the Melville Millionaires.
The North Stars then promptly sent the fans, and themselves, into despair again with a 4-1 decision to Melfort at home Tuesday.
The North Stars now look forward to three more home games in a row this weekend, hosting Flin Flon on Friday and Saturday and then Weyburn on Sunday, before hitting the road again.
The North Stars have a heavy stretch of home games right now because the Civic Centre is booked for early January for the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling, forcing the North Stars to hit the road for much of that month. After Jan. 4, the North Stars will have only four home games left at the Civic Centre for the remainder of the regular season.
Head coach Brayden Klimosko understood the need for the team to perform well at home.
“It’s a difficult barn for teams to come in, and we’ve got to make sure it is difficult for them to come in here,” said Klimosko. As for their next opponent Flin Flon, “we better be dialed in and ready to go.”
Estevan 2 North Stars 1 (Shootout)
For most of Friday’s contest at the Civic Centre it was a total goaltenders’ duel, as Joel Grzybowski of the North Stars and Jake Anthony of Estevan kept the game scoreless deep into the third period.
It was MacGregor Sinclair who broke the deadlock at the 5:16 mark of the third period with his tenth of the season, to lift the North Stars to a 1-0 lead. Ryan Gil assisted.
That tenuous lead held up, forcing Estevan to pull Anthony for the extra attacker.
Unbelievably, the Bruins’ Bryce Platt put the puck past Grzybowski with 6.7 seconds, stunning the crowd at the Civic Centre.
Overtime solved nothing and the game was decided in the shootout. Quinton Loon-Stewardson and Sinclair failed to put the puck in. Meanwhile, Michael McChesney and Turner Ripplinger both scored, giving Estevan the victory.
It was a heartbreaking finish for Grzybowski who had stopped 28 of 29 shots. Meanwhile, Anthony stopped 32 of 33 for the win.
North Stars 7 Melville 4
It was a particularly high-scoring matchup Sunday as the North Stars took on the Millionaires.
The North Stars wasted no time. They got on the board first with Owen Lamb’s twelfth of the season from Cody Spagrud and Braydon Buziak just 19 seconds into the first period, to make it 1-0.
Max McPeak tied it at the 14:37 mark before Braydon Buziak reclaimed the North Stars’ lead, Spagrud assisting, at 15:21.
In the second period Ryan Gil extended the lead to 3-1 from Elijah Loon-Stewardson and Matthew Fletcher at 11:49. Josh Borynec brought the Mils back within one at the 16:23 mark.
In the third period, goals by Quintin Loon-Stewardson and the second of the game by Buziak extended the lead to 5-2 before the Mils’ Tristan Shewchuk answered back with two of his own to make things interesting.
The first Shewchuk goal came on the power play immediately after an incident involving Cody Spagrud, Owen Lamb and the Mils’ Cory Schillo and Like Nkwama. Schillo and Spagrud got 10-minute misconduct penalties while Spagrud was assessed a five-minute major-fighting penalty and a two minute instigator penalty.
The second Shewchuk goal came at the 11:20 mark after John Elliott took a Melville slashing penalty to even things up.
Two empty net goals by Buziak and Lamb finished off the game. While Buziak got credit for his hat-trick goal, the puck was in fact last touched by Melville and made its way back down the ice into their own net.
Adam Dmyterko stopped 21 of 25 for the win; Berk Berkeliev stopped 25 of 30 in defeat.
Melfort 4 North Stars 1
This was yet another result to drive North Stars fans crazy. The North Stars outshot the Mustangs 35-19 in the game, and still lost by three goals.
Justin Ball got things rolling for Melfort with a power play goal in the first period, and then Braeden Young, and Ball again, added to the lead in the second.
Regan Doig got the lone North Stars goal late in the period from Brett Gammer and Austin Shumanski. Doig thought he got another goal in the third period but it was called back due to a high stick. Instead it was Zack Smith who beat Grzybowski, for a 4-1 final score.
Shawn Parkinson got the win for Melfort, stopping 34 of 35 shots. Despite outshooting the Mustangs, there were no excuses from coach Klimosko, who felt Parkinson was also able to make too many easy saves.
“We’ve got to work harder in situations and make it more difficult for him to make those saves,” said Klimosko.
The North Stars now have a few days to rest and prepare for their stretch of games with Flin Flon and Weyburn this weekend at home
