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North Stars take 3-0 stranglehold with 7-4 win in game three

Mar 23, 2016 | 9:48 AM

Just like in game two, the Battlefords North Stars found themselves trailing in the third period. Once again, an offensive outburst led them to victory.

The North Stars used a five-goal third period to lift them to a 7-4 victory over Kindersley on Tuesday, March 22, giving them a chance to wrap up the series Thursday night on the road. It didn’t take long for the North Stars offence to show up in game three.

After goaltender Tyler Fuhr made two great saves in the first 30 seconds of the game, Coby Downs took a shot from the left faceoff circle that deflected off the stick of Klippers defenceman Holden Daley and past Nathan Hargrave just 55 seconds into the opening frame.

Late in the period, the Klippers tied the game on the man advantage. It was an unfortunate bounce for the North Stars, as Connor Sych blocked a shot from Matt VanderSloot perfectly, but it deflected to the right face-off circle, onto Cody Young’s stick and he fired it into the open net for his sixth goal of the playoffs.

Early into the second frame, the North Stars would retake their lead, while shorthanded. Layne Young and Downs played give and go at the Klippers blue line, and Young skated down towards the left wing corner. He skated along the goal line before cutting in front of the net on his backhand, stuffing the puck past Hargrave to restore his teams lead.

On the same power play however, the Klippers evened the score again. A mad scramble ensued in the North Stars crease, as all four white jerseys were trying to find the puck. Daniel Lange was standing at the side of the goal and was able to flip the puck under the bar to tie the game at two.

In the third period, the flood gates opened. Just 54 seconds in, the Klippers scored their third power play goal of the game when Lange rifled a perfectly placed shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle, off the cross bar and in, to give the Klippers a 3-2 lead.

It took the North Stars seven minutes to regain the momentum. On a delayed penalty, the puck ended up on the stick of Igor Leonenko in the slot. He took a spinning shot that Hargrave didn’t see, beating the Klippers goaltender for his second of the playoffs to even the score at three.

Not even two minutes later, while four on four, the North Stars got a goal from an unlikely source. Leonenko was barging down the right wing with defenceman Jordan Wiest following the play. Leonenko centered the puck and Wiest slapped it into the open cage, before an exuberant celebration saw him jump into the glass in the Kindersley end.

Just over two minutes later the North Stars finally scored a power play goal of their own. Cody Spagrud took a pass at the right point and kept his head up the entire time, before firing a slap pass towards the net. Braydon Buziak was doing a flyby of the net, and deflected in his first career playoff goal to make it 5-3 North Stars.

The Klippers wouldn’t go quietly though, four minutes after Buziak’s goal Kindersley got a bit lucky as Dexter Bricker’s pass from the slot deflected off the skate of the North Stars defender and past Fuhr to cut the lead to 5-4 with 4:29 remaining.

The North Stars would ice the game in the final minutes, as Leonenko picked up his second goal of the game off a turnover in the slot, before Dustin Gorgi hit the empty net from centre ice to make the final score 7-4.

The North Stars now lead the series 3-0 and going back to the regular season have won 14 straight games, including 11 straight over Kindersley in the 2015-16 season. Battlefords looks to wrap up the series on Thursday night in Kindersley.

Email: cjnbsports@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @craig_beauch