By Nathan Kanter

North Stars put up 8 goals again; on verge of sweep

Mar 21, 2017 | 1:11 AM

In their first road game of the 2017 playoffs, the North Stars duplicated their eight-goal performance from game two with an 8-1 route of Weyburn in game three.

Their offence may be the primary reason for the commanding 3-0 series lead, but in game three their defence was also the best its been in these playoffs.

“I thought we did a real good job of coming back in the neutral zone and our forwards closing the gaps on puck carriers and their forwards,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after the blowout win. “It made our defensive job a little bit easier. Whenever we had battles in our zone, I thought our ‘D’ did an excellent job communicating and taking the right guy. We weren’t running around like we have been over the last couple games.”

“[I was] really happy with the way we played defensively tonight and couldn’t have asked for much more than that.”

Based on the final score, it’s easy to forget how poorly Battlefords’ played in the opening 20 minutes.

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They were outshot 10-8 in the first, and the score was tied 1-1 after Cody Spagrud and Cody Chasse exchanged goals.

But it was the choppy play from the North Stars that was more worrisome than the score itself.

“I just think we were kind of lackadaisical [in the first],” Bedford said. “We were just kind of staying around and waiting for the game to come to us a little bit and gave up around four or five odd-man rushes in the first 10 minutes.”

After that lackluster first period performance, Bedford made sure the team got the message that they needed to be much, much better.

The message from their head coach was received, and showed itself in the form of four second period goals.

“I just told them they need to grow up a little bit and be men here and finish things off the right way and I think they took offence to it and weren’t very happy,” Bedford said. “Sometimes you’ve got to poke the bear a little bit to get them going and good for them, they responded pretty well.”

The go-ahead goal in period number two came under two minutes in on a powerplay, after Downs made a backhand pass to Ben Allen, who netted his ffith goal of the series.

Then, Downs would pick the pocket of a Weyburn defender and centre a pass for linemate Layne Young who made no mistake to make it a 3-1 game.

That was followed up by a Reed Delainey rebound goal on a Ryan Rosenberg shot. It was Delainey’s first career playoff goal.

To close out the period, Jared Blaquiere would feed Connor Logan on a 2-on-1 rush to stretch the lead to 5-1.

Bedford said he knew right away the second period would be an improvement, simply based on the attitude on the bench immediately after he laid into them in the intermission.

“The guys came over to the bench and they were pretty hyped up and aggresive with each other verbally and you kind of had that feeling of, ‘OK, were going to be OK here,’” Bedford said. “Obviously, Allen [with] a timely goal, scoring right away here, I think that was important and then we just kept rolling afte that. Everything was positive.”

Entering the third period with a 5-1 lead, the North Stars didn’t let up.

First, Logan scored his second of the night when the Red Wings let him walk out from the corner and snipe one short side. Then Bryce Hall would dazzle when he outwaited pretty much everyone in the building, including goaltender Jake MecLennan, and then roofed it to make it 7-1. Logan would things off with a hat-trick on a power play when he put home a pretty passing play into a yawning cage.

With the North Stars’ 20-goal total in just three playoff games, Bedford knows the pace can’t possibly continue.

But he knows they are doing the right things offensively.

“We’re doing things the right way: we’re putting pucks on net and we’re going to dirty areas,” Bedford said. “No matter who is playing goal, it’s going to be hard on them.

“I always say it’s about the journey, it’s not necessarily always about the result. And right now we’re doing things the right way on the offensize side of the puck for the most part and that’s not being a perimeter team.”

Goaltender Taryn Kotchorek also played his best game of the series, making 29 saves on 30 shots. He is now 3-0 in his first three career playoff games with a 2.33 goals-against-average and .915 save percentage.

“I thought [their] first [goal] was a tough one and…after that he looked solid and in control of the game,” Bedford said. “Part of goaltending isn’t necessarily making big stops. It’s being in control and I thought he controlled the puck well, he got whistles at the right time, he played the puck at the right time, [and] he wasn’t fumbling. Guys grow confident the more and more he can do that consecutively.”

The North Stars can sweep the series with a win on Tuesday night at Crescent Point Place.

Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. with the Ultra Print pre-game show at 7:15 p.m. on CJNB/CJNS.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11