By Nathan Kanter

North Stars stay perfect against Broncos with 3-1 win

Dec 3, 2016 | 1:38 AM

The last time the North Stars were in Humboldt, they allowed three third period goals, but managed to hang on for a 5-3 win.

Head coach Nate Bedford was visibly frustrated with his club after the game.

This time, the North Stars built on a spectacular second period in which they only allowed one shot on goal, by closing out the Broncos with an insurance marker in the third to come away with a 3-1 win. It was the 11th straight win versus Humboldt, dating back to the 2014-15 season.

“It’s funny, the last time we were here is probably the most angry I’ve been with our team,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after the road win. “Going into the third period [last time], we talked about blocking shots and sacrificing and doing little things to win a good road game against a real good hockey team and we did completely the opposite of that. So it was kind of like Groundhog Day. It felt like we were saying the same message, same type of scenario, and this time they did the job.”

The North Stars goal scorers in this one were Ryan Rosenberg, who let a bullet go to tie the game at one, Ben Allen, who sneaked behind the defence and tapped one in after a double deflection, and Cody Spagrud, who ripped who top corner glove side.

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Overall, it was one of the team’s most impressive shot differentials of the season, as the final tally was 48-16 in favour of Battlefords.

Outshooting opponents is nothing new – they’ve done it in every game this season except once – but to triple your opponent is not easy.

Part of the reason the shots were so lopsided, especially in the second when they favoured the visitors 14-1, was because of Humboldt getting into penalty trouble.

The North Stars ended the night 1-for-7 with the man advantage.

“I thought we did a good job on our power play, it’s just they got in the way of pucks and their goaltending was great,” Bedford said. “They did a great job killing penalties, holy. They were getting in front of shots. They were really patient on the PK.”

And in the final frame, part of the difference was the shot blocking on the part of the North Stars.

Humboldt could only manage six third period shots on target.

“I liked our third,” Bedford reiterated. “We had to kill some penalties off. It was a much better third than first, that’s for sure.

“The way the game ended I thought was real good so real happy tonight.”

Bedford also decided to change every single one of his lines, which included having Conor Jensen play forward, alongside MacGregor Sinclair and Logan Nachtegaele.

Layne Young and Coby Downs were also split up, as Young skated with Brett Horn and Troy Gerein at even strength, and Downs played with Keaton Holinaty and Ben Allen. The other line was Reed Delainey centering Connor Logan and Bryce Hall.

Bedford said the changes happened in anticipation of potentially losing Layne Young, as well as Levi Kleiboer and Cody Spagrud, to team Canada West for December’s Junior A Challenge.

“My expectation is [Young’s] going to make it and so are Kleiboer and Spags,” Bedford said, “Instead of waiting for them to make it, let’s prepare our team to play with different guys and different scenarios and different positions for some people.

“We’re just being a little pro-active because we know how good those three guys are for one, and I think the other one is we’ve become a little bit complacent over the last two weeks, maybe three weeks actually, with our play. Obviously we’re still winning games aside from Estevan but I think we’re not doing it the right way and sometimes we get comfortable with our lines.”

Bedford added that the new line combos may have also been one reason that the North Stars were a little slow in the first 10 minutes.

Battlefords’ season record is now 24-6, which gives them a three-point cushion for the league lead.

They will travel to Pinehouse next for a neutral zone game against the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Wednesday, Dec. 7. The North Stars are 3-0 against La Ronge so far this season.

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