By Nathan Kanter

Stars score flurry of goals in pre-season win over Hawks

Sep 15, 2017 | 9:00 AM

Goals were the gift that kept on giving for the AAA Stars on Thursday night in pre-season action at the CIvic Centre, as the Stars defeated the Beardy’s Blackhawks 8-2.

Leading the way on offence were Meadow Lake native Dylan Easu and North Battleford native Luke Fennig.

Esau netted a hat-trick and Fennig, the younger brother of North Star Blake Fennig, scored two goals.

“The highlight goal of the night was Fennig’s,” North Stars head coach Norm Johnston said following the win, the team’s second of the exhibition schedule in three days. “When he went through the team and scored…that was really nice. Esau went to the net. He went to the net and scored, and Fennig’s just got a touch.

“We’ve got some guys that can score. We’ve got some kids that have got skill. And we can skate. We’ve got pretty good feet.”

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Though Johnston said the offensive output was nice, he was fairly displeased with his team’s play in the defensive zone.

The Stars gave up 29 shots, but Johnston said the problem was simply being pinned in their own end for too long.

“Inside our zone, we couldn’t get out,” Johnston said. “Our back end, our four-zone support [wasn’t good]. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“I’m pretty happy with the way we’re going to score. The d-side of the puck is going to drive me crazy…As a coach, we have to get better.”

That being said, Johnston made clear the distinction between junior hockey and midget hockey, saying this will be a process and that’s understandable.

“The d-side of the puck is going to be a progression all winter long,” he said. “It’s not that the kids can’t play. We’re not offensively challenged, but we’re offensively greedy. So we want to score. So sometimes we don’t come back hard enough, we don’t get a guy in the middle high enough. The ‘D’ don’t have the quickest feet in the world and they’ve got to work on that.

“Playing defence in AAA midget; it’s hard…It’s not a nice, easy thing to do. Offence is creativity and defence is hard work. And that’s the name of the game.”

Just like on Tuesday, in the team’s 5-2 win over the Saskatoon Contacts, Johnston was pleased with his goaltending.

This time, it was returning netminder Joseph Young making 27 saves on 29 shots.

“We’ve got two good goaltenders,” Johnston said of Young and Carter Serhyenko, who will be in Wilcox, Sask. this weekend competing for a spot on the provincial U-16 Challenge Cup team. “You want to come watch good goaltenders, come watch Young and Serhyenko. Good guys, good goaltenders. They can stop pucks; they have fun.”

The Stars will have over a week off before their next pre-season game. They are scheduled to play the Llodyminster AAA Bobcats next Saturday, Sept. 23 on the road and then Sunday, Sept. 24 at home, before opening the regular season on Friday, Sept. 29 at the showcase in Warman when they take on the Notre Dame AAA Hounds at 11 a.m.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11