By Nathan Kanter

North Stars hold off Ice Wolves 3-2

Dec 8, 2016 | 2:17 AM

The first neutral zone game of the season did not disappoint the packed crowd in Pinehouse, as the North Stars were able to hold off the La Ronge Ice Wolves in the final minutes for a narrow 3-2 win.

It was the North Stars 17th win in their last 18 games, and improves their season record to 25-6.

“The fans were fantastic,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after the game when asked what the atmosphere was like in Pinehouse. “The whole experience has been fantastic and I’m glad we got to take part in it and certainly a win makes it a little bit better. Good experience all around.” 

Battlefords is now are also now a perfect 4-0 against La Ronge this season.

But Bedford was critical of his team’s finish, and also felt the Ice Wolves outworked his club.

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“I cant emphasize it enough…and they’re priobably tired of hearing about it, but youve got to earn first place every single day once you’re there,” Bedford said. “I thought we had lots of opportunities where we could have made it a lot easier on ourselves… but we didn’t.

“They desvered to be in that game and we probbaly got away with one there.”

The game appeared to be in Battlefords’ control for most of the game, as they led 1-0 after 20 minutes and then 3-0 with just a minute to go in the second.

Kendall Fransoo opened the scoring just a minute and a half in on a man advantage, while Coby Downs made it 2-0 thanks to a well placed shot top corner. Owen Lamb increase the North Stars lead to three after his pass on a 2-on-1 ricocheted off the defender and went in halfway through the middle frame.

“We have seven 20-year-olds on our team – that helps,” Bedford said. “We’re supposed to score goals. You look at our lineup, if we’re not scoring goals, then something’s wrong. We expect our guys to score. There’s enough experience in that room that we should definitely have three or four goals a game.”

Derek Patter would get a breakaway in the final minute of the second period and convert blocker side on Taryn Kotchorek to make it a two-goal game after 40 minutes.

Battlefords’ did a good job of shutting things down in the third but a shorthanded goal from Patter with 3:19 to go gave the Ice Wolves some life by cutting the score to 3-2.

The North Stars, however, would ultimately hold La Ronge off and pull out the win.

“They were all over us there late in the third,” Bedford said. “It’s the same message – when you’re winning, it’s great, but you’ve got to keep in mind you’ve still got to work hard. It’s like getting a great job, a geat paying job, and then not working hard at it. Eventually, you lsoe it and we’re going to start losing games because of it.”

Kotchorek notched his 13th win of the season, improving his record to an impressive 13-2. His 13 wins are third in the SJHL.

Meanwhile, Downs’ goal moved him into the top-20 in league scoring, as he now has 28 points in 20 games. It was also his 101st career SJHL point, as he passed the century mark in last Friday’s win in Humboldt. Fransoo’s goal was his 22nd point of the season, bumping him into fifth in league scoring among defenceman.

The North Stars were without Levi Kleiboer, Cody Spagrud, and Layne Young on Wednesday, as they had just finished try outs for team Canada West in Leduc, Alta. None of them made the team, so all three will be in the lineup this weekend for home games against Yorkton and Kindersley.

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