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Hawks prove difficult, but not insurmountable for North Stars

Nov 16, 2016 | 12:27 AM

As expected, the Nipawin Hawks proved to be a difficult opponent for the North Stars on Tuesday night at the Civic Centre, but in the end the home side prevailed 4-2 to extend their winning streak to an impressive 12 games.

“From a team standpoint, I think everyone was going tonight,” said North Stars associate coach Braeden Johnson after the game. “The work ethic was unbelievable. Our relentlessness to win battles was I think our key to our success.”

An unlucky bounce three minutes into the game that ended up in the back of the North Stars net didn’t hamper spirits early on, as they continued on with their game plan and found two goals of their own before the period was done. The Hawks fought back in the second, but an early third period goal from Reed Delainey would prove to be enough for the North Stars 20th win of the season.

Not turning pucks over at the offensive blueline was a key heading into the game because the North Stars coaching staff did not want to give up too many odd-man rushes.

Johnson felt they were successful.

“From a d-zone perspective, I think we moved the puck extremely well and then once the puck was in our forwards hands, I think they did a great job with getting the puck deep and not playing around with it at the blueline,” Johnson said. “There weren’t too many turnovers that I can remember.

“Getting the puck low was extremely important for us tonight.”

Shutting down the leagues top power play was also important.

The best way to not let a lethal power play score is to not give them any chances with the man advantage in the first place. That ended up being the case for both teams, as neither one gave the other too many power play opportunities – just four each.

“I think we kept our emotions in check,” Johnson said. “I think both teams knew the importance of this game and you don’t want to get into penalty trouble so I think the guys fully understood the situation.”

The North Stars opening goal of the game came on a man advantage, after Kendall Fransoo got a one-timer off – one that was missing some steam but still found the crossbar and beat Hawks goaltender Kristian Stead.

The other goal scorers were Ben Allen, on a 2-on-1, Brett Horn, who corralled a blocked shoot and fired one from the slot, and Delainey, who let an absolute rocket go from just inside the blueline after jumping off the bench.

Beating Stead four times was impressive, as not only are the Hawks known for their strong defensive play – having allowed under two goals per game on the season heading into Tuesday’s action – but Stead was neck and neck with North Stars goalie Joel Gryzbowski for the league lead in both save percentage and goals-against-average.

“He’s right up there for the top goalie in our league,” Johnson said. “He’s a great goalie and we had to work hard to beat him.”

It was clear early on why the Hawks have allowed so few goals this season, as they swarmed the puck down low in their own zone with multiple bodies hounding the North Stars forwards and pushing them to the outside of the ice.

But the North Stars were still able to generate 39 shots on goal by the end of the night.

“I think you just have to take advantage of winning the small battles,” Johnson said, on how to counter the Hawks smothering defence. “That’s what the game comes down to in these types of games and I think we did extremely well in that department.”

Hawks coach Doug Johnson said he thought the game went fairly well.

“I liked our effort and I think it was maybe a little tighter than what the score indicates,” he said. “We made a couple mistakes that ended up in the back of our net that we have to eliminate and I thought we had some chances that we didn’t capitalize on.”

Scoring the goals for the Hawks were Brett Harasymuk and Chad McCartney.

The North Stars have a double-header at home on the docket next, as the Melfort Mustangs come to town on Friday and the Estevan Bruins visit on Saturday.

Battlefords is a combined 4-1 against the Mustangs and Bruins this season, having lost to the Bruins at home way back on September 24. They crushed the Bruins in the next meeting, 10-3 on October 15, and they have beaten Melfort in all three meetings this year, shutting them out twice.

 

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