Saturday night Nov.2 was a special night for the Battlefords North Stars players, coaches, staff and fans.
It was the night the Canalta Cup championship rings were presented to members of the winning North Stars team from 2018-19.
“Very special,” said head coach Brayden Klimosko. “It’s kind of a neat honour to be able to have something like that… the experience was kind of cool and for our fans to be part of that was a neat experience, for sure.”
Team president Shandon Reichert presented the rings to each member of that squad, many of whom are on this year’s current team.
The club had particularly waited to Nov. 2 to present the rings so that Ryan Glanville, who had been traded to the Yorkton Terriers this season, could be there to receive his ring in person.
Some graduating members of last year’s team, Joel Grzybowski, Owen Lamb and Austin Shumanski, were also on hand to personally receive their rings. In Grzybowski’s case, he literally couldn’t wait as he ran across the ice surface to pick up his ring from Reichert.
The North Stars also had in attendance Rod Pedersen, host of Facebook’s The Rod Pedersen Show, who was on hand in the lobby to sign copies of the SJHL history book Heart & Soul of the SJHL.
North Stars 3 Yorkton 2 (OT)
The Battlefords North Stars would be undefeated in the SJHL if the Yorkton Terriers weren’t in the league.
The Terriers have played the North Stars particularly tough this season, beating them in Yorkton earlier this season and forcing the game on Saturday to overtime before the North Stars prevailed.
Jordan Guiney scored first at 15:13 of the first period to give Yorkton the initial lead, but the North Stars came back with two in the second. Noah Form scored with Matthew Fletcher and Matthias Urbanski assisting, and then seconds later Elijah Loon-Stewardson scored from Quintin Loon-Stewardson at 9:38.
Chantz Petruic’s goal at 11:59 ultimately forced the game into overtime. In the end the North Stars prevailed as Quintin Loon-Stewardson scored just 18 seconds into overtime, for his team-leading 13th goal of the season. Fletcher got his 20th assist of the season on that play.
Austin Schwab got the start for the North Stars and stopped 30 of 32 shots for the win. The win was the North Stars’ 12th in a row and moved their record to 19-1 on the season.
“The boys keep winning hockey games. They’re finding ways to do it,” said Klimosko. “It’s a special group in there.”
Next up for the North Stars is a home game versus Humboldt Broncos on Tuesday night at the Civic Centre.
