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AAA Stars fall to Blazers for fourth straight loss

Jan 17, 2017 | 8:33 PM

The AAA Stars couldn’t muster a win on Tuesday against the Saskatoon Blazers at home, ultimately falling 4-2.

They were in solid shape heading into the third tied up 2-2, but allowed a goal several minutes into the final frame and then another one several minutes later after taking an undisciplined penalty.

“You can’t take a penalty like that at a faceoff when you’re down 3-2,” AAA Stars coach Jean Fauchon said of Jordan Mish’s butt-ending penalty with under eight minutes to go in the game. “We’re getting ready to…go on the attack and now we’re killing for four.

“We can’t have that.”

In the final few minutes they only managed to muster a couple of chances and took another penalty as well. In the end, they couldn’t claw back into it at all, as 4-2 held up as the final.

“It was a frustrating game to say the least,” Fauchon said. “Today we deserved every penalty we got. It was selfish play. Over half of the penalties we took were just selfish, there was no need for them and it cost us the game. It cost us the momentum we had. We’ve got to find a way to play a game without taking penalties.”

This was a crucial game for the Stars, who now fall to 12-18-0-2. They are now in ninth place at the moment, one point out of a playoff spot, but the Blazers and Beardy’s Blackhawks are right on their tail, each just a single point behind them. Saskatoon also has three games in hand and the Blackhawks have one.

“It’s getting real frustrating when this is a game that we should have won,” Fauchon said. “We needed the win to pull closer to fifth. Now, with the loss, we’re one point out of 11th. We’ve got to take advantage of these games and we can’t be out there playing for ourselves.”

 

 

 

There are 12 games left in the regular season.

When asked if there were any positives, Fauchon struggled to find an answer.

“I guess the positive is we barely gave up more shots that we had for us, which is a positive because we’re usually getting outshot quite a bit.”

The final shots were 31-27 for Saskatoon, who are now 11-15-0-3 this season.

But they’ve now won three games in their last four.

“I really liked the way we responded,” Blazers head coach Randy Smith. “Battlefords came out hard – they were physical, they forechecked hard and I thought our guys did a really good job once we made a couple of adjustments.”

Smith said the key for his guys down the stretch is consistency.

“I think there’s some times during the game where we play well for a period or four or five shifts and then we kind of lose our focus,” he said. “We’re not a team that can play anything but 60 minutes. We’re going to need to do that every single game down the stretch otherwise we’re going to be in tough.”

The Stars, meanwhile, clearly need to work on their discipline. They next play on the road againt the Blackhawks this Sunday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m.