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By Martin Martinson

North Stars rise above Wings for victory

Nov 18, 2018 | 10:21 PM

The Battlefords North Stars closed out their weekend homestand on a high note Sunday night, clinching a convincing 3-1 victory over the Weyburn Red Wings at the Civic Centre.

In a first period that saw the North Stars outshoot the Wings by a 19-7 margin, a defenseman once again opened the scoring for the black and silver, this time courtesy of Ryan Granville.

The scoring play resulted after Granville received a relay feed from Matthias Urbanski in the neutral zone, and, after seeing his teammates heading off to the bench on the line change, the defender from Sherwood Park, Alta., decided to waltz the puck into Red Wing ice, with the right-hander firing off a wrister from the left-side circle, clanking perfectly off the far side post and into the net.

Granville’s goal marked his second of the season and was the only tally in the opening frame.

The Stars added to their lead in the second period, when, picking up the puck at the offensive blue line off a MacGregor Sinclair feed, The California Kid, Ryan Gil brushed his way in on the attack, with three Red Wings’ defenders back.

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Throwing a nifty head-fake at the first, Gil then shifted gears and drove hard to the outside on the next. With the defenseman realizing quickly that he had to pivot to skate forwards in order to keep up with the Stars’ forward’s speed, Gil proved the decision was not made quickly enough, shrugging off the last man, as he cut swiftly in front of the Wings’ goalmouth, transitioning his stick from just the one hand to two, while simultaneously reaching around the 6’5 Weyburn goaltender, Cody Levesque, to the forehand where the 20-year-old from Torrance, Cali., slipped the puck home for his ninth of the year.

In the third, the Red Wings answered back with a goal early, coming from defenseman Jevon Schwean just 37 seconds into the final period. The goal was his third of the season.

Despite a few good shifts late on a push for the tie, the Red Wings came up empty in their comeback bid, with North Stars’ hometown boy, Owen Lamb icing the victory cake for his team on an empty-netter that also served as his team-leading 14th of the season.

Stars’ goaltender, Joel Grzybowski, stood tall all game, making 31 stops on the 32 shots he faced.

The North Stars will now get nearly a week’s time to rest and get set for their next game, Friday night at Centennial Arena in Nipawin against the defending champion Hawks.

 

Scoring summary

First period:

13:55 BAT Ryan Granville (2) ASST: Matthias Urbanski (16)

Second period:

5:46 BAT Ryan Gil (9) ASST: MacGregor Sinclair (20), Quintin Loon-Stewardson (4)

Third period:                                                         

0:37 WEY Jevon Schwean (3) ASST: Cade Kowalski (21), Ben Hiltz (13)

19:17 BAT Owen Lamb (14) ASST: None (EN)

3-1 Final, North Stars

 

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1

by Martin Martinson

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