North Stars gearing up for Canalta Cup run

Who will the North Stars play?

The dates and times of Battlefords’ quarter-final series are not quite set, and the opponent is not known yet either.

But the North Stars ran away with first place this season and have home-ice locked up throughout the playoffs. Their top seeding will ensure they face the lowest remaining wildcard seed in the quarters, which can be either the Weyburn Red Wings or Melfort Mustangs. It will be a best four-of-seven series.

Weyburn defeated Kindersley in their wildcard series 3-0 and Notre Dame currently leads Melfort 2-1 in the other best 3-of-5 series, with game four set for Tuesday night.

If the North Stars get through that first series, which is fully expected to happen, things could get juicy, as a semifinal date with Estevan would be the most likely. Battlefords split the season series with Estevan 2-2 and the teams showed a certain amount of disdain for one another in those games. They combined for 318 penalty minutes in the four head-to-head meetings.

The reason Estevan is the most likely to face Battlefords in round two, despite being ranked third, is because the division winners aren’t given preferential treatment in the semifinals. Although Estevan won the Viterra Division with 77 points, they finished the year with the fourth-most points overall, and if Flin Flon and Nipawin advance, they would face each other and Estevan would drop to fourth and have a date with the North Stars.

Again, that only happens if all the top seeds advance.

What are the North Stars’ strengths heading into playoffs?

As mentioned, the North Stars have the best goaltending duo in the league, by far. Taryn Kotchorek and Joel Gryzbowski finished the regular season ranked first and second in goals-against-average with a 1.61 and 1.66 mark, respectively, and combined for a 48-7-1 record and 11 shutouts.

So although Bedford prefers not to reveal too far in advance who gets the nod for game one, it’s safe to say both will see some playing time at some point. It’s also most likely that Kotchorek gets the nod for game one, as he is two years older and wasn’t given a chance to play in the playoffs last year despite posting a 15-4-1 record and .920 save percentage in the regular season.

The other two biggest strengths for the North Stars is their ability to limit shots from the opposition and their penalty kill.

The team’s shots on goal differential over the course of the year was +916, second in the league only to Flin Flon (+988, but we all know whoever is counting shots at Flin Flon’s home games thinks three and one are often the same).

The North Stars were outshot just once all season long and averaged 25.4 shots against per game, comfortably first in the league.

That made things a lot easier on their goaltenders and helped the team set an all-time SJHL record for fewest goals allowed in a single season with 103 in 58 games (1.77 per game).

The team’s penalty killing finished the season with a 89.1 per cent efficiency, which is the highest percentage since the league began posting the stat on their website in the 2010-11 season. Their 28 power play goals against is also 10 fewer than the second-best mark this year, which was the 38 allowed by the Bombers.

The North Stars’ superb penalty killing also got better as the season wore on. They allowed just four power plays goals in their final 14 games. During that span, they killed off 66 of 70 penalties, for a 94.3 per cent efficiency.

Are there any weaknesses for the North Stars?

For a team that lost just 10 times in 58 games, weaknesses are hard to find, especially when half of those losses came in the first month of the year with a new head coach (Battlefords went 40-4-1 after an 8-5 start).

The North Stars weren’t even complacent after clinching the division, as they went 11-1, scoring 47 goals for and allowing just 12 against during that span.

Based on the eye test, it may have seemed Battlefords had a little bit of trouble with slow starts as the season wound down, but a closer look at the numbers shows that first periods are actually their best period, with 73 goals for and just 28 against over the course of the year. In February and March, they had 16 goals for in the first and just six against.

But if there is one ‘weakness’ it may be a lack of forward depth, at least as the season wore on.

On forward, the North Stars were once again led by the duo of Coby Downs and Layne Young, who each passed the 70-point mark for the second straight season. Behind those two, only four other North Star forwards scored 10 or more goals this year: Ben Allen, Reed Delainey, Keaton Holinaty, and Connor Logan.

By comparison, Estevan had eight total forwards crack double digits in goals, while Flin Flon and Nipawin had nine each.

Also, only four North Stars cracked the 40-point plateau. Seven Bombers and seven Hawks did, while eight Bruins managed to do so.

It’s important to point out that the top line of Downs, Young and Allen accounted for 34 per cent of the team’s goals this year (75 of 220, which doesn’t include shootout goals). It’s not that high of a number in the grand scheme of things, but if this team is to have success deep in the playoffs, it’s probably best if that percentage came down and everyone else chipped in a little bit more.

There’s little evidence to suggest that can’t happen, as this is a team that rolled all four lines and six ‘D’ to 48 wins this year, and that won’t change come playoff time.

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars gearing up for Canalta Cup run

What's Trending