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North Stars still in mix, Spagrud up for two league awards

It’s been a notable few days for the Battlefords North Stars and for one of its players in particular. That player is Cody Spagrud, who was named the Global Ag Risk Division nominee for two SJHL awards categories.
Battlefords North Stars logo

It’s been a notable few days for the Battlefords North Stars and for one of its players in particular.

That player is Cody Spagrud, who was named the Global Ag Risk Division nominee for two SJHL awards categories.

Spagrud is up for Player of the Year against Turner Ripplinger of the Estevan Bruins and Carson Albrecht of the Melfort Mustangs. He is also up for Best Defenceman against Jake Heerspink of the Bruins and Calvon Boots of the Flin Flon Bombers.

In the other categories the Top Goalie category is between Justen Close (Kindersley), Colby Entz (Melville) and Declan Hobbs (Nipawin). The Rookie of the Year award is between Nolan Renwick (Notre Dame), Luke Spadafora (Melville) and Vincent Nardone (Flin Flon). Finally, the MVP award is between Michael Clarke (Humboldt), Turner Ripplinger (Estevan) and Justin Ball (Melfort).

SJHL media will be casting their votes this week on who the winners will be.

As for the divisional race, the North Stars remain in the hunt after picking up three out of a possible four points this past weekend.

They now sit third with 68 points in the Global Ag Risk Division. Both Humboldt and Kindersley are on top with 71 points after Kindersley’s 4-1 win over Humboldt on Monday to snap the Broncos’ 10-game winning streak.  

 

North Stars 3 Kindersley 2

The North Stars got a crucial win over the Klippers to move to within two points of the lead in the division race on Friday night.

A quick start helped the North Stars on this night. With Tate Page in the box for interference, Owen Lamb capitalized on the power play two minutes into the first period, with Macgregor Sinclair and Braydon Buziak getting the assists. For Lamb it was his 23rd goal of the season.

Will Van Der Sloot cut it to 2-1 on the power play at 16:59. That was all the scoring through one.

The second period saw Seth Summers score what proved to be the game winner at the 1:08 mark, Matthew Fletcher and Owen Lamb assisting.

Van Der Sloot’s second power play goal of the game at the 14:50 mark in the third period brought the Klippers to within one. Despite a furious push by the Klippers, who outshot the North Stars 13-3 in the third period, the North Stars held on.     

Joel Grzybowski got the win, stopping 28 of 30 shots. Zach Johnson took the loss for the Klippers stopping 15 of 18.

 

Melfort 4 North Stars 3 (Shootout)

Two third-period goals allowed the North Stars to force overtime and earn a point in Melfort Saturday night.

Melfort got on the board first with a power play goal from Carson Albrecht, his 29th of the season, at 4:58 of the first; Kayle Tosh made it 2-0 at the 12:58 mark.

But Quintin Loon-Stewardson’s 11th of the season, from Elijah Loon-Stewardson and Ryan Gil on the power play, made it 2-1 through one.

In period two, Albrecht’s 30th of the season from Ball made it 3-1.

But the third period saw the North Stars claw back. Sinclair’s 25th from Spagrud and Buziak at the 2:30 mark cut the lead to one, and then the North Stars tied it at 3-3 with Lamb’s goal. Gil and Noah Form got the assist.

Overtime solved nothing, and Melfort took care of business in the shootout with goals from Ball and George King. Neither Elijah Loon-Stewardson nor Braydon Buziak could capitalize for the North Stars in the shootout session, and the game ended 4-3.

The North Stars outshot Melfort 40-28 but Noah Giesbrecht stopped 37 of 40 shots for the win and was named the game’s first star. Grzybowski stopped 24 of 27 for the North Stars.

 

The North Stars have a busy weekend ahead as they head to the southeast. They play Weyburn on Friday, Estevan Saturday and Notre Dame on Sunday.