If the Yorkton Terriers weren’t in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League the Battlefords North Stars would be undefeated right now.
Unfortunately for the North Stars, the Terriers don’t seem in any danger of folding or going out of business. They certainly didn’t fold Wednesday, as they defeated the North Stars for the third time this season by a final score of 5-1. It was the first of a five game road trip for the North Stars.
All three of the North Stars defeats this season have been to Yorkton; they have won the other 24 games on the schedule and still retain a comfortable nine-point lead over the rest of the SJHL.
For a while in Yorkton it looked like the North Stars might break the Yorkton curse. They did get the first goal of the game in the second period as Quintin Loon-Stewardson got a goal, with Elijah Loon-Stewardson assisting at the 7:29 mark.
But a familiar foe, Chantz Petruic, scored from Alec Zawatsky and Ryan Granville at the 10:29 mark to make it 1-1. Then Petruic and Zawatsky set up Kaeden Taphorn for a power play goal at 12:42 to take the lead.
Jordan Guiney’s goal from Callum MacDonald and Brett LeGrandeur made it 3-1 at the 15:37 mark. In the third period, Zawatsky scored from Granville and Guiney at the 2:22 mark and finally Steven Norum put one into the empty net at 17:15.
Shots favored the North Stars 43-35. Ryan Ouellette got the win while Parker Rey took the loss.
The defeat ended a brief two-game North Stars winning streak – their shortest win streak of the season.
The team now heads to Wilcox to take on their divisional opponents the Notre Dame Hounds in their second game of their road trip.
