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North Stars finish first half of season by doubling up Hounds

Nov 25, 2016 | 11:31 PM

The North Stars followed up their poor third period performance on Wednesday with a better one on Friday in their 4-2 win over Notre Dame.

Better, but not great, according to head coach Nate Bedford.

“The last couple games [with] two-goal leads, I still haven’t felt comfortable,” Bedford said following the team’s 23rd win of the season through 29 games. “I think we did a better job. We were a little bit better in our defensive end and little bit more committed to doing things better.

“It’s just one of those times of the year where parts of games sometimes fall apart for whatever reason. Right now it’s just holding a lead. At the beginning of the year we were great at it and right now, we aren’t great at it.”

The Hounds were without a significant piece in rookie Adam Dawe, who came into the night fourth in league scoring with 34 points.

Regardless, they played well, keeping the game close throughout.

“They were missing Dawe tonight, which is huge, and I thought they worked as hard as I’ve seen all year,” Bedford said. “I thought they played really well defensively so they made things hard on us. It was a tough game for our guys and it was good to come out with the win.”

Special teams also played a role, which was noted by Hounds head coach Clint Mylymok.

The Hounds, who came in with second best power play in the league, went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. The North Stars scored once on the man advantage, finishing 1-for-8 on the night.

But Mylymok said the biggest difference was the North Stars’ ability to get pucks through from the blueline.

“Their ‘D’ is their strength,” he said. “Three of their goals they just got pucks through. We didn’t do a good enough job of taking away those shots.”

Perhaps something that played an even bigger role than special teams was the play of the North Stars first line.

The trio of Ben Allen, Coby Downs, and Layne Young came into the night with 29 points combined in their last eight games.

Each of them added two points on Friday, to make it 35 points in their last nine.

Particularly impressive were both of Allen’s goals, each coming off a deflection in front of the net.

“I think all three of them have been real good,” Bedford said. “They’re chomping at the bit to get back on the ice. They’re flying out there. Layne’s leading the way and it looks like very time Coby has the puck in the offensive zone, it looks like he’s ready to put it through the mesh and I think Allen…can do just about anything on the offensive side.”

It’s now the exact halfway point of the SJHL season for the North Stars, who sit comfortably in first at 23-6.  They have won 15 of their last 16, after starting the season 8-5.

They have the league’s top power play and the league’s second best penalty kill.

They have the league’s second best goals against per-game at 2.20 and the league’s second best goals for per-game at 4.10. Because of that, they have the league’s best goals differential by a country mile, at +55.

“As I’ve said before, we were supposed to be this good,” Bedford said. “[Former coach] Kevin [Hasselberg] put us in a real good situation, building this organization. The guys that we have back are real good and the new guys coming in are that much better than I expected and so after the 8-5 start, you kind of panic a little bit and wonder if you know what you’re doing and all of a sudden we’re in first place here and we’re starting to play real well.

“We’re starting to get upset when we’re winning games so that’s a good sign.”

The North Stars now have a week off before they travel to Humboldt for a rematch on Friday, Dec. 2 with the Broncos. Humboldt has now lost five straight, after falling to Flin Flon 4-1 on Friday.

 

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