The North Stars won their first game of 2025 last night 4-2 against the Nipawin Hawks. (Byron Hildebrand/Facebook)

By Austin Mattes

Starting off strong

North Stars take first game of 2025 over Nipawin

Jan 5, 2025 | 7:35 AM

After 13 days away from the ice, the Battlefords North Stars played their first game of 2025 Saturday night at the Access Communications Centre and kicked it off strong, winning 4-2 over the Nipawin Hawks.

In the first period, the North Stars took charge right out of the gate, controlling the puck possession and doing a great job of limiting Nipawin’s scoring chances. Despite their good efforts and out shooting the Hawks 12-8 in the first period, the score was still tied at zero.

Coming out for the second, the North Stars slowed down a little bit and gave Nipawin a power play, which they ended up scoring on to get the first goal and take a 1-0 lead.

But then, just past the midway point of the period, Seth Dragan got his first goal in a North Stars jersey on a great shot from the right side circle to tie the game 1-1.

Nearing the end of the second, the North Stars lit the lamp again, this time from Colton Getzlaff. His 10th of the season gave Battlefords a 2-1 going into the intermission.

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In the third period, the success continued for the North Stars as they got an another goal from Elijah Anderson early on in the period to extend the lead to 3-1.

Nipawin was able to get one more goal in the final minutes of the game to make it 3-2, but that didn’t last long as Nikita Ivashchenko sealed the deal with an empty netter to win the game 4-2.

The North Stars outshot the Hawks 46 to 31, went 0/1 on the powerplay and stopped Nipawin once out of two times on the penalty kill.

Justen Maric had another good performance stopping 29/31 shots in the win.

Battlefords record is now at 16-10-3-2 for 37 points on the season, keeping them at 5th overall in the league.

The North Stars have a rematch against the Hawks Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at the Centennial Arena in Nipawin.

Listen to the game with the Napa Auto Parts North Stars Hockey Broadcast on CJNB/CJNS, starting with the Ultra Print Pregame show at 2:30 p.m.

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austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes