By Nathan Kanter

North Stars need to keep up physicality to pull off sweep

Mar 21, 2018 | 12:00 PM

There was a bit of nastiness in game three between the Battlefords North Stars and Weyburn Red Wings on Tuesday night, which ended in a 4-1 win for Battlefords thanks to two empty-net goals.

With game four scheduled for tonight, the North Stars are focused on replicating many of the things they did so well in game three, like keeping up their physical game, which was the difference in the opening game of the series.

“Maybe there were a few more hits, bigger hits [in game three] but other than that I felt it was normal,” North Stars defenceman Garan Magnes said at Wednesday’s morning skate, who will return to the lineup in game four after serving a one-game suspension. “We need to play physical, the way we have been.”

The Wings did ramp up their physicality in game three and played better in their home barn, but North Stars Head Coach Brandon Heck expects tonight to be even more difficult.

“Probably going to need our best game of the series,” he said. “The last one is the hardest one to win, so one through 20, we’re going to need a good performance from everyone.” 

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The plan is to once again roll four lines, as the North Stars believe they have a little bit more scoring depth than the seventh-seeded Red Wings.

In order to do that, they need to take fewer penalties than they did in game three, as they were shorthanded seven times.

“We need to limit penalty minutes,” Magnes said. “Make them take the penalties, and if we play them 5-on-5 we’ll score more than them.”

The North Stars have outscored the Wings in the series 13-3 at even strength, as four of the Red Wings’ seven goals thus far have come on the man advantage.

Heck said goaltender Joel Grzybowski was the team’s best player in game three, but he was also happy with how the team held on to their 2-1 lead in the third period.

“We’ve had a lot of leads [this season], ” Heck said. “We attacked it different in a lot of games where we kept pushing, and yesterday we wanted to just run the clock out … they had a real good push and I didn’t want to get caught.”

The North Stars will go for the sweep tonight at Crescent Point Place, the same place they pulled off the sweep exactly one year ago with a 4-3 win on March 21, 2017.

Puck drop for NorSask North Stars hockey is set for 7:30 p.m. with the Ultra Print pre-game show hitting the airwaves at 7 p.m. on CJNB/CJNS.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11