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Column: North Stars starting to roll; SJHL better watch out

Oct 27, 2016 | 2:00 PM

The way I see it, there have been three distinct chapters in the North Stars 2016-17 season so far.

Part one was the inconsistent team that would play marvellously one night, and then take a major step back the next game. This took place in the first seven games of the year, when the team went 4-3.

Then came part two, where it appeared the team had turned a corner – winning four straight for the first time all season – before they fell in back-to-back games against Notre Dame and Weyburn. I call this second part of the year, the “can’t win from behind” part of the year. If Battlefords ever gave up the first goal, they wouldn’t win. Slow starts were the reason for the two losses to Notre Dame and Weyburn.

Chapter three of this saga began when the team exploded for 10 goals against Estevan. I like to call this stage the “in sync” stage, when the team followed up a big win in Estevan with three more straight wins against first-place Humboldt, La Ronge and Kindersley.

And so, after 17 games, the team is 12-5-0, putting them solidly in second in the league.

So where is this going? What’s the point of splitting up the North Stars’ season into three sections?

The reason is because I think we’re about to enter stage four. Stage four is bad news for the rest of the league.

Let’s call this one “taking flight.”

The North Stars are about to play eight of their next 10 games at home. They have out-scored their opponents 26-6 in their past four games – all wins – and everything appears to be swinging in the right direction.

Goaltending has been solid from the duo of Joel Gryzbowski and Taryn Kotchorek, the defence has stepped up the past three games without assistant captain Connor Sych, and clearly, their offence has been flying.

Ten different players had multi-point nights in the win over Estevan and 14 different players had at least one point in Tuesday’s 8-2 win over Kindersley. Their power play has gone 10-for-24 over the past four games, for an eye-popping percentage of 41.7.

After Tuesday’s win in Kindersley, head coach Nate Bedford described why their first power play unit has been so effective.

“You can put five or six ‘D’ back there at the point and have [Layne] Young on the one side, [Coby] Downs is on the other – what do you do?” he said.

What do other teams do? How do you defend two of the most creative players in the league who have such great chemistry with one another?

In terms of the penalty kill, which struggled earlier in the year, the North Stars have solved it by not taking penalties. They’ve been shorthanded just 12 times the past four games (they’ve killed off all 12). On the season as a whole, they are only shorthanded an average of 3.9 times per game, the second lowest number in the entire league – strangely only the Flin Flon Bombers, who play a rough style of game, are shorthanded less.

And so, as this team embarks on a long home stand for the next few weeks, fans should fully expect the team to keep rolling.

It’s taken a bit, but it seems the powerful Battlefords North Stars are finally taking flight.

 

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