North Stars during warm-ups at the West Central Events Centre in Kindersley (Austin Mattes/BattlefordsNOW Staff)

By Austin Mattes

North Stars Win In Kindersley

North Stars wrap up the pre-season on high note

Sep 14, 2024 | 4:58 PM

The Battlefords North Stars finished off their preseason last night with a 3-1 win over the Kindersley Klippers at the West Central Events Centre.

The North Stars started hot right out of the gate, putting on a barrage of shots while barely letting the Klippers touch the puck. Then just under six minutes into the game, while on the power play, Rylan Williams got the first goal on a beautiful cross-crease pass from Kobie Anderson to go up one.

From there on out, the floodgates opened.

The North Stars scored twice more in the period, one from Jackson Allan on the power play assisted by Elijah Anderson, and the other, an unassisted goal from Braden Nienaber on a loose puck in front of the net. The first period came to an end with the North Stars dominating, holding a 3-0 lead, going 2/2 on the power play, and outshooting Kindersley 17-9.

In the second period, the Klippers finally started to give some resistance, finding some good shot opportunities and getting more puck possession.

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After a big defensive breakout, Kindersley found themselves in a two-on-one situation and were able to get their first and only goal of the game, coming from Cam Perlinger.

As the period went on, there was a lot of back and forth from both teams but no one was able to get anything going. The period came to an end with a score of 3-1 in favour of the North Stars.

It seemed like an exciting third period was ahead, but in a turn of events, the game was called early during the second intermission due to issues with the ice quality.

This resulted in the game going to the North Stars, 3-1 to wrap up the preseason.

The North Stars finished the preseason with a record of 5-2 after playing seven games in 11 days.

Their wins included an 8-6 win and a 4-3 overtime win against Bonnyville, a 10-8 win over Lloydminster, an 8-4 win over La Ronge, and the 3-1 win over Kindersley while taking a 5-1 loss to La Ronge and a 7-4 loss to Kindersley.

Head coach, Garry Childerhose, said that he was happy with the preseason and it showed the team what to expect going into the regular season.

“I thought it was a good preseason…to start off with everyone getting a lot of opportunities, everyone getting to play a lot of games in a short amount of time, it’s a good intro to what the season is going to be like with a busy schedule and obviously we’re happy with to finish off with a five and two record, it’s something we’re happy with…but we’re also looking forward to getting things going here for the regular season.”

Childerhose added that playing teams from the AJHL was a great and exciting experience that helped with the team’s mentality.

“It’s a great look for us…it’s obviously exciting, the guys get up for it. There’s that Alberta, Saskatchewan rivalry and it was a really good test for us as a group to play against strong AJ teams and I thought we answered the bell very well. It was one of those things where mental toughness showed huge for the guys and the effort and compete has been really good, so we’re just looking to build on that moving forward.”

Childerhose also expressed his trust in the veterans on the team to lead the new group of young players.

“We have a really good group of older guys that have come in right away and have been leading the way and not only great hockey players, but great people and guys that know what it takes to win. Guys like Jackson Allen and Jordan Grill were a part of the Centennial Cup run a few years ago and a lot of other guys, 19 year olds, 20 year olds returning have a lot of leadership qualities and we feel that we got a good combination between youth and experience this year.”

The North Stars home opener is this coming Friday, September 20th at the Access Communications Centre against the Kindersley Klippers. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.

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austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

X: @AustinMattes