Despite depleted lineup, North Stars squeak past Broncos
The injuries and suspensions added up for the Battlefords North Stars ahead of Wednesday’s road match against the Humboldt Broncos.
Yet in their fourth game in six nights, they were able to defeat the Broncos 3-2 in a shootout, despite nine different players having to sit out because of either a suspension or an injury, including their entire second line, their starting goaltender, and two 20-year-old defencemen.
“Gutsy, greasy, just a hard-fought character win,” North Stars assistant coach Boyd Wakelin said in the post-game interview on CJNB/CJNS. “It’s like the perfect win after last night where we didn’t really have it. I thought it was probably one of our worst games of the year last night. For the guys to come out and gut one out like they did tonight [was great]. I told them from the start it wasn’t going to be a pretty one.
“It took every guy in the lineup. It was awesome.”