Six unanswered goals in the first and second period told the story as the Battlefords North Stars romped to a 6-3 home-ice win over the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
The North Stars exploded for five second-period goals to deliver the KO to the Ice Wolves. The Ice Wolves played better in the third and ultimately outshot the North Stars in the game 40-37. But the solid netminding of newly-acquired Kristian Lyon, in his first start at the Civic Centre, frustrated the Ice Wolves all night and earned him Star of the Game honors.
For the third straight game, all the North Stars came from different individual players, a sign that the team is taking advantage of a balanced attack from multiple performers. Six North Stars accounted for their six goals Friday night.
By stark contrast, all the La Ronge goals Friday came from one player. Jordan Mish opened the scoring with a power play goal at 3:29 of the first period, and then scored two in the third period for the hat trick.
But things unravelled quickly for the Ice Wolves after their opening marker. A power play goal by Ben Hiltz at the 7:12 mark of period one tied things up for the North Stars, and then the North Stars took the lead in period two on goals by Quintin Loon-Stewardson (his 24th of the season) and by Kaden Boser (unassisted).
The key moment of the game happed midway through period two. With Quintin Loon-Stewardson penalized for roughing and Logan Spence taking an interference penalty, the Ice Wolves took a two-man advantage. But they were unable to capitalize on it. The North Stars were able to kill the Loon-Stewardson penalty off. With 42 seconds left in the Spence minor, Loon-Stewardson was back on the ice and he set up Matthias Urbanski for a shorthanded goal, beating Liam McGarva in the Wolves' net.
The Ice Wolves never recovered from that. The North Stars' Dylan Esau (power play) and Timon Prexler added goals to end the second period with a commanding 6-1 lead. Shots on goal by that point favored the North Stars 30-21.
With such a huge lead for the opponents to overcome, the North Stars seemed to go on autopilot for the third period. La Ronge came up with a strong performance in the frame, outshooting the North Stars 19-7 and getting two goals from Mish. Xavier Cannon played period three for the Ice Wolves in goal and stopped all seven shots he faced.
Despite that, no one got the impression that a dramatic Ice Wolves comeback was in the works. The Ice Wolves' frustrations finally boiled over midway through the period, when fisticuffs erupted. Kevin Fillier and the Stars' Austin Becker took roughing penalties at 10:47; the Ice Wolves' Logan Holm and Stars' Jaxon Steele and Seth Summers took roughing after the whistle penalties at 11:31, and then a scrap between Spence and the Ice Wolves' Rowan Barnes saw both of them take major fighting and game misconduct penalties at 18:31. Ty Budai and Kaden Boser also took roughing and 10-minute misconduct penalties.
The Stars' win streak is now up to three games following the two road victories earlier this week. They now hit the road again as they head west to Hillmond for Hockey Day in Saskatchewan, where they take on the Hounds Saturday night.
