The North Stars lost 8-6 to the Melfort Mustangs last night at the ACC (Byron Hildebrand/Facebook).

By Austin Mattes

8-6 loss

Wild finish results in North Stars falling to Mustangs

Feb 19, 2025 | 3:59 AM

There was no shortage of action last night at the Access Communication Centre as the Battlefords North Stars went toe-to-toe with the Melfort Mustangs and after a wild finish, ended up falling short to the Mustangs 8-6.

In the first period, the North Stars opened up the scoring early with a powerplay goal, just over two minutes in from Linken Fisher to make it 1-0. Shortly after that though, Melfort answered back with one of their own to tie the game 1-1.

As the period went on, it was an absolute battle with both teams getting good rushes and scoring opportunities, but it was Melfort who was able to strike the nylon once more to take the lead 2–1 going into the intermission.

Coming out for the second, the North Stars saw some penalty troubles and the Mustangs took advantage, scoring two powerplay goals to extend their lead to 4-1, just before the midway point of the period.

At this point, a comeback seemed far out of reach for the North Stars, but the team rallied after getting back-to-back goals from Nikita Ivashchenko and Jordan Grill, making it 4-3 going into the third.

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To start the third, the North Stars used their momentum to get things going right away, scoring just 35 seconds into the period on a goal from Jordan Grill again, this time on the powerplay to tie the game 4-4.

Following that, the North Stars continued to fire on all cylinders, scoring another goal, this time from Rylan Williams to take the lead 5-4. Then despite being on a five minute penalty kill shortly after, Battlefords lit the lamp again with a shorthanded goal from Colton Getzlaff to extended the lead to 6-4 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.

However, even with the momentum going against them, the Mustangs were eventually able to answer back with another powerplay goal to close the gap to 6-5. That then gave the Mustangs the spark they needed and the script started to flip with Melfort getting back-to-back goals from Reilley Kotai to go up 7-6 in the final three minutes.

In the end, the North Stars pulled their goalie for the extra attacker but were unsuccessful and Melfort scored one more coming on an empty netter to take the win 8-6.

The North Stars got outshot 31 to 28, went 2/5 on the powerplay and stopped Melfort only two out of five times on the penalty kill.

Connor Baumbach stopped 23/30 shots in the game.

The North Stars record is now at 23-20-3-2 for 51 points, keeping them at 7th overall in the league.

Battlefords next game is this Friday, Feb. 21 against the Kindersley Klippers in Kindersley with puck drop at 7:30 p.m.

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austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes