By Nathan Kanter

North Stars begin 2017 right where they left off

Jan 7, 2017 | 12:07 AM

It may be a new calendar year, but the North Stars were up to their old tricks again: scoring goals and winning games.

In the highly anticipated rematch to November’s 8-6 loss to the Estevan Bruins – a loss that saw Battlefords’ 13-game winning streak come to an end – the North Stars showed who’s boss by beating the league’s second best team 6-3 on the road on Friday night.

Battlefords showed no rust at all after their 19-day break from the schedule, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after just 20 minutes thanks to two power play goals and a well executed 3-on-2 rush from their top line of Ben Allen, Coby Downs, and Layne Young, with Young finishing it off for his 19th goal of the season.

“I didn’t know if [we] would come out flat and certainly [we] didn’t, so real proud of the way they handled things,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after the team’s fourth straight win. “I was obviously a little bit nervous about having a two-week break – I don’t think I’ve ever had one – but I just thought with our discipline off the ice, I thought they deserved it.”

In the second, the North Stars took a step back when Estevan netted two quick ones to get to within a goal, but that was as close as they would come.

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“Things could have gone a lot worse,” Bedford said. “[We] lost focus a little bit [in the second]…and kind of took the foot of the pedal and a real good Estevan team came back and we had to turn it back on again. So it’s the same old story but [for] a two week break [and] first game back, it’s expected.”

North Stars forward MacGregor Sinclair would score his fourth goal of the season late in the third to restore the visitors two-goal lead at 4-2. Sinclair and Logan Nachtegaele would also add empty netters to make it a 6-3 final. The North Stars improve to 31-7 on the season.

Battlefords’ mostly sat back in the third, which made for a fairly boring final period.

“I thought we were ready to close it out. I thought that was a good sign,” Bedford said. “We decied that we were going to have a high guy in their zone at all times. No matter what, even if it looked like it was a sure thing, we were going to stay high. I think they had two or three scoring chances in the third.

“Estevan kept coming and we made sure that we were coming back with numbers and we made if very difficult for them to generate anything and I think if you spend very limited amounts of time in your zone, you’re going to be successful. I thought we did that in the third.”

Taryn Kotchorek stopped 24 of 27 shots to collect his 13th straight win of the season, and now holds a 17-2 record on the year.

Layne Young also increased his point streak to 11 games, with a goal and an assist. He now has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) during that span.

This game was the first of three games in three nights. On Saturday night the North Stars are in Weyburn to take on the Red Wings – who fell 4-1 to Notre Dame on Friday – and on Sunday Battlefords has a 4:30 p.m. tilt with Notre Dame, also on the road.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11