The Battlefords North Stars moved to just two points back of division leading Kindersley Klippers on Friday night with a 4-2 win on the road.
it did not come easy as the Klippers outshot the North Stars on the night. But the North Stars came out ahead where it counts the most, on the scoreboard, for their 20th win of the season for 46 points.
The win sets up a rematch between the two teams Saturday night with the North Stars in position to move into a tie for the division lead with a victory. Their win Friday also moved the North Stars one point ahead of their division rivals the Humboldt Broncos, who had parted with their head coach Nathan Oystrick earlier that day.
In the Friday night contest the North Stars took control by building a 3-0 lead. It started with a power play goal by MacGregor Sinclair from Austin Becker and Matthias Urbanski at the 10:23 mark of period one. For Sinclair it was his 13th goal of the season.
In the second period Brett Gammer scored from Austin Becker to make it 2-0, and then Ryan Gil got his 14th of the season from Urbanski and Ryan Granville to make it a three goal lead through two periods.
Kindersley got one back at the 2:06 mark of the third as Wil Van Der Sloot scored from Josh Fletcher and Cameron Shorrock. But Sinclair's 14th of the season into an empty net erased any doubt about the outcome, although Clay Keeley did score with 16 seconds left to make the final score look respectable.
Shots favored the Klippers 33-23, but a solid performance by Joel Grzybowski in net helped matters considerably as he stopped 31 of 33 shots.Justen Close stopped 19 of 22 in defeat for the Klippers.
The two teams are back in action Saturday at the Civic Centre, game time is 7:30 pm.
