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North Stars beat Klippers at home in penalty-fest

The Battlefords North Stars got an important win over their division rivals Saturday, beating the Kindersley Klippers at home 4-2. It was a tough contest, as always against their rivals.
North Stars head coach Brayden Klimosko during a time out in the game versus Kindersley.
North Stars head coach Brayden Klimosko during a time out in the game versus Kindersley.

The Battlefords North Stars got an important win over their division rivals Saturday, beating the Kindersley Klippers at home 4-2.

It was a tough contest, as always against their rivals. Coach Brayden Klimosko was happy to see the hard work pay off for the North Stars.

"We're getting battle-tested and its showing," said Klimosko.

"We executed, that was the difference. We drove the net hard, we took pucks towards the net, all that type of thing. So we got rewarded for the hard work and it was nice to see, the boys deserve it."

While games against the Klippers always seem to have heightened tension, this one was particularly dominated by penalties. There were nine North Stars power plays while the Klippers had six, and both teams capitalized often.

It was the North Stars who got into trouble early on, going down two men for 22 seconds with Austin Becker in the box for boarding and Ryan Glanville in for tripping. Kindersley then made the North Stars pay with a goal from Blake Kleiner, with Ty Enns and Caden Benson assisting at 5:18.

With less than five minutes left in the period, it was the North Stars who had the two-man advantage as Klippers Will Van der Sloot and Brendon Borbely were sent to the box with ineligible player and slashing penalties respectively. This time, it was Regan Doig who capitalized with his fifth of the season from Braydon Buziak at 16:51.

But soon after at 17:05 Doig ended up in the box for interference putting Kindersley right back on the power play. Just seven seconds into the man advantage, the Klippers retook the lead on a goal by Austin Nault, Kleiner assisting, at 17:12.

That was all the scoring through one. Shots on goal in the period favoured the North Stars 15-12.

In period two, the North Stars tied the game on an even strength goal from Quintin Loon-Stewardson from Esau and Austin Shumanski at 2:21.

Then at 10:55, the North Stars took the lead on another power play marker as Owen Lamb got his 15th of the season from Buziak and Matthew Fletcher at 10:55.

The North Stars’ Buziak thought he had a fourth North Stars goal in the period, but it was ruled no goal and the replay was conclusive in showing the puck did not go in the net.

Shots favoured the North Stars through two, 29-20.

In the third period a long shot from near the blue line by Matthew Fletcher ended up finding a way past Justen Close into the net; Brett Gammer was credited with the goal with Fletcher and Shumanski assisting at 2:21.

The North Stars held on to that lead the rest of the way for a 4-2 win. Final shots favoured the North Stars 36-33. Joel Grzybowski got the win in net for the North Stars.

The next game for the North Stars is Friday night at home to Notre Dame.