By Nathan Kanter

AAA Stars outmatched by Hounds

Jan 16, 2017 | 4:00 PM

The AAA Stars played just once this past weekend in a penalty filled game.

After opening the scoring in the first minute of the game, Battlefords would go on to take far too many penalties and allow five unanswered goals in their loss to the Notre Dame Hounds.

The 5-1 score was disappointing to the Stars, but a loss to Notre Dame has been the tale of the tape this season, as the visitors were 3-0 against Battlefords coming into Sunday’s action. They beat the Stars by scores of 6-3, 8-1 and 6-2, all in November.

“We had a really good start I felt. We had some jump to us, which is different for us,” Stars head coach Jean Fauchon said. “Then, again, we got into some penalty trouble and when you take that many penalties — the guys are going to get tired from killing [penalty] and it kind of throws your whole rhythm off when you’re constantly killing penalties and… you don’t have that opportunity to go out there and attack, which was our game plan from the get go.”

When asked what led to all the penalties, Fauchon said he wasn’t pleased with the officiating.

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“I felt that we didn’t deserve as many as we got. Sure we deserved some, but not as many and I felt that they let some of theirs go, which was really frustrating,” he said. “When it starts to get that way, where you feel like you’re constantly getting penalties and they’re getting away with stuff, it does get frustrating for these kids. You’ve got to remember they’re teenagers and it gets frustrating.

“As you know we got some slashing and cross checking penalties because emotions were getting high,” said Fauchon.

The Hounds struck twice on the man advantage, going 2-for-13 on the afternoon.

They were also able to run up the shot clock with all the power plays, firing 53 shots on Stars goaltender Lance Alm, who was once again formidable.

“It’s always good to see that both of our [goalies] are playing well and stopping a lot of rubber,” Fauchon said. “[They’re] keeping us in games and giving us that chance to try to win a lot of these games.”

For the Hounds, Swiss product Anthony Neuenschwander stood out with both of the power play goals. He and twin brother Joel, who had an assist on the afternoon, caused havoc for the Stars throughout the game.

Because Notre Dame is an internationally renowned boarding school with a strong athletic reputation, they often have a very solid AAA team.

“They’re able to select players from all over the world so they usually have a really good squad,” Fauchon said. “They go to school at a rink so they’re on the ice quite a bit. They’re just a well-coached team and they move the puck well and they can skate well.”

In order to try to counter their speed and skill, Battlefords got physical, which has always been a staple of their game.

It was hard, however, to use their physicality to create offensive opportunities because they were constantly on the penalty kill.

“We’re built with some speed and to be physical and hopefully that creates turnovers for us and then we’re able to capitalize on those,” Fauchon said. “You can see by the standings that we have scoring by committee there and we’ve got to work hard to get our opportunities.”

There are now just 13 games remaining on the schedule, with Battlefords in eighth place with a 12-17-0-2 record.

They are five points back of the fifth place Prince Albert Mintos, but also just three points up on the 11th place Saskatoon Blazers. That means just eight points separate seven teams from fifth to 11th.

“We’ve got to pick it up here,” Fauchon said. “Fifth [place] really isn’t out of the question… We’ve got to find a way to take points off of these top four teams as well, because other teams are doing it and for some reason we haven’t been able to do that yet. We play well against the teams we’re battling with, but that’s only going to get you so far.

“We’re fighting for a playoff spot… so we’ve got to take advantage and start getting some points against these top end teams as well.”

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