The North Stars lost 5-3 to Weyburn last night in Game 3 of their playoff series (Byron Hildebrand/Facebook).

By Austin Mattes

5-3 loss

Tough third period leads to North Stars loss in Game 3

Mar 26, 2025 | 2:07 AM

Last night, the Battlefords North Stars were back at the Access Communications Centre for Game 3 of their playoff series against the Weyburn Red Wings and ended up losing 5-3 to go down 2-1 in the series.

For the first period, the North Stars opened up the scoring just five minutes in on a goal from Josh Knittig to take a 1-0 lead. Not long after that though, the Red Wings flipped the switch and surged for three straight goals within nine minutes of each other to go up 3-1.

However, with just under three minutes left in the period, Rylan Williams answered back for the North Stats with a powerplay goal to close the gap to 3-2 going into the second.

To start off the second period, it was a back and forth affair with both teams going shot for shot and getting good chances on net. This eventually resulted in the game tying goal for the North Stars, coming from a tight angle shot by Nikita Ivashchenko to make it 3-3.

Both sides continued to trade chances throughout the rest of the period but still no one could take the edge and the game went to the third all tied up.

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Then in the third period, this is when the game slowly started to slip away from the North Stars. After Battlefords failed to convert on a powerplay, Weyburn got one of their own and scored just 10 seconds into it to take back the lead 4-3. Following that, the Red Wings took no time to score again, finding the back of the net just 18 seconds after to extend their lead to 5-3.

The North Stars did try to claw back and tie the game, but after a five minutes major penalty in the final seven minutes, they struggled to get anything going offensively. There was some good chances in the last two minutes for Battlefords but in the end, there just wasn’t enough time and the North Stars lost the contest 5-3.

The shots were tied at 35 by the end of the game with the North Stars going 1/3 on the powerplay and stopping Weyburn five out of six times on the penalty kill.

Justen Maric stopped 30/35 shots in the loss.

The North Stars will have a chance to even the series tonight as they take on Weyburn again for Game 4 at the Access Communication Centre.

Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. and you can listen to the game with the Napa Auto Parts North Stars Hockey Broadcast on CJNB/CJNS. Ultra Print pregame show starts at 7:00 p.m.

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes