(Ryan Lambert/BattlefordsNOW staff)

By Ryan Lambert

Battlefords North Stars

Battlefords North Stars fall 3-2 to the Melfort Mustangs in the shootout

Oct 3, 2025 | 11:48 PM

A back and forth game in Melfort ended in a 3-2 shootout loss for the North Stars against the Mustangs, Kaleb Binner scored the shootout winner.

The Mustangs started off the game outplaying the North Stars and got onto the board early when Owen Nelson got in behind the defense, received a pass in front and put it past Stars goaltender Kaeden Serpa to make it 1-0 early.

The North Stars went down a man not long after when Carter Geysen hit Austin Shephard up high away from the puck and received a five minute major and a game misconduct for major interference. However, they were able to kill off the penalty. No other goals were scored and the first and the Stars went into the second period down 1-0.

Battlefords started off strong in the second period, noticably playing with more urgency to start the frame. Less than five minutes into the frame, Mustangs captain Zayden Sadlemeyer went to the box for slashing before Ryder Ellis was penalized for tripping to give Battlefords a 5-on-3 powerplay opportunity, but the North Stars couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

In the final five minutes of the second period, Sebastian Miles walked in from the top of the right circle and shot it under the blocker of Kason Kobelka to tie up the game.

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Kobe Sawyer took an interference penalty near the end of the period but Battlefords didn’t touch the puck for the rest of the frame. The Stars began the third tied at 1 and on the penalty kill.

A good part of that penalty kill was spent in Melfort’s zone as Battlefords got some scoring chances but couldn’t capatalize. When the penalty kill ended, Owen Dyck sent a pass off the boards up to Sawyer who had just come out of the box for a clear breakaway. Like Miles, Sawyer put it blocker side to give the North Stars the 2-1 lead.

The rest of the period was even until the last few minutes when Melfort started to get some sustained offensive zone time and were moving the puck around well. A passing play ended with Will Munro firing a one timer past Serpa from between the circles to tie it at two with less than three minutes to go in regulation.

Melfort had some chances to end it in regulation, but couldn’t do so and the game went to overtime and eventually a shootout.

The North Stars sent out four shooters (Raiden Zacharias, Anthony Campbell, Cole Hines, Josh Knittig) but Kason Kobelka turned away all four. Kaleb Binner eventually put one past Serpa to give the Mustangs the 3-2 shootout win.

Battlefords fell to 2-1-0-1 on the year, while Melfort improved to 3-1-0-1. The two teams go at it again on Saturday night at the Access Communications Centre in North Battleford. The Ultra Print Services pregame show starts at 7, and puck drop for Napa Auto Parts North Stars hockey is at 7:30 on CJNB.

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Ryan.lambert@pattisonmedia.com