By battlefordsNOW Staff

North Stars will face Red Wings in SJHL quarter-finals

Mar 14, 2018 | 10:16 PM

With the Weyburn Red Wings topping Melville on Wednesday night to close out that survivor series, the Battlefords North Stars finally know who their quarter-final playoff opponent will be.

Because the Red Wings are the highest remaining seed (7th), they will take on the North Stars in a best-of-7 series beginning on Friday night at the Civic Centre.

Here’s a quick look at some head-to-head numbers:

Season Series

The North Stars won the season series 3-1 and only allowed five goals total in those four head-to-head matches.

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Two of the four games were decided by a single goal (1-0 loss Nov. 11 and 2-1 win Feb. 8), one was decided by two goals (5-3 win Nov. 18), and the most recent result was a North Stars blowout, as they won 5-0 on Family Day in Weyburn.

Special Teams

The good news for Battlefords is their special teams played a significant role in the outcome of their games against Weyburn this year.

Their power play, which finished 8th overall in the SJHL this season at 17 per cent, went 4-for-13 in the four games against the Wings (30.7 per cent). Their penalty kill also went 15-for-17 (88.2 per cent).

Overall, Weyburn’s power play was dangerous this season, finishing in third at 22.6 per cent. What’s impressive for them is their power play on the road was actually better than at home, with a 23.8 per cent efficiency away from Crescent Point Place (best road PP in the league) and 21.3 per cent efficiency at home.

As for the penalty kill overall, the North Stars have a distinct advantage.

They finished in second at 84.6 per cent, while Weyburn was 9th at 78.9 per cent.

Battlefords also scored 10 shorthanded goals this season, second best in the SJHL, while Weyburn had the fewest, with just three shorthanded tallies.

Goaltending

Another positive is North Stars goaltender Taryn Kotchorek had stellar numbers against Weyburn this season. He won two of his three starts, stopping a combined 73 of 75 shots (.973 save percentage and 0.67 goals-against-average).

Arik Weersink turned in strong games and not so strong ones, recording a 31-save shutout and a 32-save performance in a 2-1 loss, but also allowed five goals in each of his other two starts.

Weersink is, however, riding the hot hand, as he stopped 125 of 130 shots he faced in the three-game survivor series with Melville (.962 save percentage), including a 46-save shutout in game two to keep the Wings alive.

Top Scorers

The elite talent of the North Stars is tough to match for any opponent, with Layne Young leading the league in scoring by 22 points and winning MVP, plus MacGregor Sinclair finishing tied for fourth in points with 74 and third in goals with 33.

There is, however, a bit of a drop off after that, with the next highest North Star finishing with 42 points (both Matthias Urbanski and Levi Keliboer). The Wings had three players top 50 points this season, led by co-rookie of the year winner Cade Kowalski, whose 60 points led his club and led all rookies by a significant margin.

If you dig deeper, the North Stars forward depth certainly has the edge, as 10 players topped 30 points (including Cole Johnson, who had 35 points in just 23 games), while the Wings had just seven. Those numbers also reflect in the overall goal scoring numbers, as the North Stars scored 222 goals this season (not counting shootout goals) and Weyburn had just 182.

Schedule

The North Stars have home ice advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs, so this series kicks off with back-to-back home games on Fri. March 16 and Sat. March 17.

The full schedule is yet to be released, but based on the other quarter-final series, the North Stars will play a pair of road games in the middle of next week, while the next home game (game five, if necessary) will be next weekend, on either Fri. March 23 or Sat. March 24.

cjnbsports@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BattlefordsNOW