By Nathan Kanter

North Stars stomp Mustangs in 4-0 win

Oct 2, 2016 | 12:06 AM

The word ‘dominating’ doesn’t even begin to describe the Battlefords North Stars 4-0 shellacking of the Melfort Mustangs on Saturday night.

Melfort managed seven shots on goal, many of them dump-ins on goal from centre, while the North Stars managed 35 shots and also out-hit, out, out shot-blocked and out-hustled the Mustangs the whole game.

“I thought we played fairly consistent for 60 minutes and that’s always good for this group right now,” head coach Nate Bedfiord said after the game. “We talked before the game about the fact that we turn it on and we turn it off, and no one really knows when it’s going to happen. So it’s good to play a full 60 minutes of good defensive hockey.”

Melfort has won back-to-back SJHL championships the past two seasons but this year has a much younger team.

They came into Saturday’s game having lost four in a row while being outscored 21 to five.

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“[Mustangs head coach] Trevor [Blevins] is in my opinion the best coach in the league,” Bedford said. “I think they’re a young team and they’re going to find their way here soon.”

Two North Stars scored their first career SJHL goals on Saturday.

First was Brett Horn, who netted the first goal of the game on a rebound lying in the slot just after a power play had expired.

In the third, defenceman Austin Shumanski found the top corner of the net with a wrist shot from the blue line for his first career Junior A goal.

Reed Delainey and Connor Sych scored the other two goals on the night.

The North Stars’ strong defensive play was their other highlight of the game.

“We just wanted to make sure we had numbers coming back through the neutral zone,” Bedford said. “We talked about our previous game and the fact that we allowed four power play goals and we were 0-for-8 in blocked shot opportunities. If you go 0-for-8, almost getting out of the way of shots, you’re not going to win many games.”

Even with the win, Bedford said he wasn’t happy with his special teams.

“We’ll change a little bit [for Tuesday’s game],” Bedford said. “I don’t think our special teams are off the charts. We’re really going to concentrate on those two areas the next couple days and make sure that we’re a little bit more prepared for Tuesday.”

The North Stars hope to get Layne Young back for Tuesday’s game, who has missed the last two games due to a head injury he suffered in Sunday’s win against Melfort after he got hit from behind.

The rematch between the Mustangs and North Stars on Tuesday is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre.

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