The Battlefords North Stars are a win away from hoisting the Canalta Cup.
They took a 3-1 stranglehold over the Melfort Mustangs in the SJHL final series, winning a wild Game Four by a 6-5 final score in overtime.
There was some confusion as to who got the winning goal. The official score sheet had credited Dylan Esau with the winning goal for the North Stars at 8:31 of OT, Matthew Fletcher assisting. But based on the replay it looked as if it was Kaden Boser who was the hero for the Battlefords; Boser was also mobbed by teammates and interviewed by the SaskTel Max crew after the game.
Later the score sheet was corrected to show that it was indeed Boser who scored, from Fletcher and Matthias Urbanski. It is Boser's third goal of the post-season.
The North Stars now head back to the Civic Centre with a chance to clinch the Cup in front of their home fans Friday night starting at 7:30 p.m. A pre-game party is planned by the North Stars prior to the game at 6 p.m. in the parking lot. A live band is scheduled to appear and Armoury Brewery will be on hand as well.
Game four of the finals between the North Stars and Mustangs was surely the most entertaining and highest scoring of the series. The game saw several lead changes as Melfort took the lead twice, only for the North Stars to come back each time. After the North Stars took a 5-3 lead Melfort got two goals in the third to tie it and ultimately send it to overtime.
The contest followed up on a tough game 3 for both teams. The Mustangs had lost three players to injury in game three. Goalie Shawn Parkinson left in period two with an upper body injury and did not return. The others, Melfort right-wingers George King and Parker Fofonoff, were lost on questionable plays that saw Dayton Heino and Ryan Gil suspended for two games.
Melfort scored first on Carson Albrecht's 11th of the postseason from Kayle Tosh at the 4:12 mark of period one. But the Stars tied it 37 seconds later on the goal from Elijah Loon-Stewardson from Braydon Buziak.
Midway through period one Buziak got his sixth of the playoffs from Macgregor Sinclair and Austin Becker on the power play, and it was 2-1 through one.
In the second, Melfort tied it at 2-2 on Tyson Meyers' third of the playoffs from Alex Rondeau and Jake Hobson. Tanner Zentner then gave Melfort the lead at the 10:57 mark from Justin Ball and Albrecht.
But Elijah Loon-Stewardson tied it from Cody Spagrud and Braydon Buziak at the 12:16 mark and it was Ryan Granville who gave the North Stars the lead 4-3 at the 16 minute mark with Owen Lamb and Brett Gammer assisting.
A huge fight erupted shortly afterwards between Buziak and Melfort's Jake Hobson. Both players got the gate for major fighting and game misconduct penalties, depleting even further the lineups for both clubs for the rest of the game.
After Zack Smith was called for cross-checking, Lamb gave the North Stars a two-goal lead on the power play with Gammer and Sinclair assisting with 53 seconds left in the second period. The North Stars seemed in control through two periods.
But the lead evaporated quickly in period three.
Just 47 seconds into the third period Colin Schmidt got his fifth of the playoffs from Albrecht and Zentner on the power play as the Loon-Stewardson brothers Quintin and Elijah were serving penalties to start the period.
Then Albrecht tied the game from Ball at the 2:34 mark of the third period to tie it up, and that would be all the scoring through three periods.
Both teams had chances in overtime, but it was the North Stars who finally prevailed. While not the best outing for Joel Grzybowski in the playoffs, he stopped 36 of 41 shots for the win. Noah Giesbrecht stopped 37 of 43 at the other end.
The North Stars will try to wrap up their third SJHL title in club history Friday. A win would also earn them a spot in the Anavet Cup versus the Manitoba champions.
