With the conclusion of Sunday night’s game, the countdown to the regular season is on for the Battlefords North Stars. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Final exhibition contest

Stars fall 4-3 to Bonnyville to wrap up preseason

Sep 8, 2019 | 9:40 PM

The Battlefords North Stars capped off their preseason Sunday falling 4-3 to the Bonnyville Pontiacs at the R.J. Lalonde Arena in Bonnyville.

Logan Spence, Ryland McNinch and Kaden Boser scored for the Stars, while goaltender Adam Dmyterko stopped 26 of 29 shots in the loss.

Bonnyville’s Matt McKim, Justin Stathopoulos, Kash Rasmussen and Lucas Thorne scored for the Pontiacs in the victory. Bonnyville goaltender Easton Hesse made 30 of 34 saves for the win.

The North Stars came out of the gates flying to take an early lead in shots. The team fired half-a-dozen pucks on the opposition goal before the Pontiacs had registered a single shot of their own.

Despite the early pressure, it was Bonnyville that struck first. McKim’s tally opened the scoring just 4:19 into the first period for the home side, capitalizing on the team’s first shot of the night.

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Rather than be discouraged, however, the Stars continued to push. Their persistence paid off late in the opening frame when, on the power play, Spence got the team on the board.

A power play goal, Spence’s tally came off a deflection. The play developed when Dylan Esau found blue liner, Liam Antoniak at the point. Antoniak’s shot through traffic was then tipped twice-over, as each of Gammer and then Spence connected on the flying rubber disc to make it 1-1.

The game remained a single-goal tie into the first intermission, despite the Stars doubling up their opposition in shots by a 16-8 margin.

In the second, the Stars again came out with a hot start, as rookie hopeful, Ryland McNinch made it 2-1 just 2:35 into the frame. That goal was followed by a Kaden Boser tally just two minutes later to make it 3-1 Stars on a shot from the left side-boards.

Despite the pair of strikes in quick succession, Bonnyville came back with a couple of their own just minutes later. In the matter of just under a minute, Justin Stathopoulos and Kash Rassmussen had reknotted the score 3-3.

The second period came to a close tied, but it didn’t come peacefully.

After Spence rocked his man at the horn to end the middle period, the forward was assessed a five-minute major for checking from behind and a game misconduct.

On the resulting power play to begin the third, Bonnyville capitalized just a half-minute into the return to action, courtesy of forward Lucas Thorne.

Although the Pontiacs continued their push for an insurance marker, the Stars’ netminder Dmyterko and the penalty killers kept the team within a single goal, killing off the remainder of the penalty time.

The Battlefords would get a couple of close calls at the end, off of a late game surge, but ultimately Bonnyville was able to hang on late for the victory.

The North Stars will now get just-under a week to rest up and finish final preparations ahead of opening night of the regular season Friday.

Friday’s game against the Klippers will be broadcast on 1050 CJNB.

Scoring summary

First period:

4:19 BON Matt McKim ASST: Lucas Thorne, Thomas Kramer

17:46 BAT Logan Spence ASST: Brett Gammer, Liam Antoniak (PP)

Second period:

2:35 BAT Ryland McNinch ASST: Noah Form

4:22 BAT Kaden Boser ASST: Quintin Loon-Stewardson, Timon Prexler

12:41 BON Justin Stathopoulos ASST: Josh Kroon, Matt Gerke

13:59 BON Kash Rasmussen ASST: Josh Kroon, Marc Benoit (PP)

Third period:

0:32 BON Lucas Thorne ASST: Alex Marrocco, Matt McKim (PP)

4-3 Bonnyville, the final.

—

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1