AAA Stars can’t find way to beat Pat Canadians

“In game one, we kind of veered away from the way we have been playing. We were trying to get a little too fancy,” Stars head coach Jean Fauchon said on Monday afternoon. “We were trying to make sure we had an open lane and weren’t using screens or anything like that so that’s why the shots were so lopsided.”

Matthew Flodell scored a third period shorthanded goal to break the shutout but the game was not close. Regina has nine power play opportunities in the game – scoring once – while Battlefords was only able to generate three power plays.

On Sunday, the score was much closer but it resulted in another loss.

“[In] game two, we were a little more focused,” Fauchon said. “They outshot us but they’re such a good defensive team that it’s tough to get shots on them and they quickly turn that into offence.

“But we battled hard. They got up on us 2-0 and we battled back to 2-2. Then they got a lucky goal and instead of giving up we just kept going and we were able to tie it up again and then they got another lucky one and we kept pressing but we just couldn’t get that fourth one.”

The Pat Canadians are a stacked team, with 14 of their players being either listed or drafted to WHL teams.

Fauchon said their ability to transition makes them tough to play against.

“They like to converge,” he said. “They all collapse in front of the net, take away shooting lanes and then they wait for a turnover and then they attack because they do have the skill to do so right away.”

Heading into the Christmas break, the Stars are just on the outside looking in, sitting in ninth place in the league with an 11-14-0-2 record. But there is a log jam from fifth to tenth, as just five points separate those four teams.

Fauchon said discipline is something that still needs to be worked on for the new year.

“We have to stay out of the box,” he said. “We were doing [well] for a little while but the last couple games we kind of reverted back to taking a couple of selfish penalties that we shouldn’t have taken.”

He also said he thinks the Stars are the most successful when they keep things simple.

“When we just forecheck hard and we’re on the puck hard and we’re shooting from whenever, I think we can win a lot of games like that,” Fauchon said. “We’ve shown – like Regina, Yorkton, Tisdale – when we’re aggressive and using our speed, they don’t have the time to make the plays that they usually do and they’re coughing up the puck, which benefits us.

“We’ve been building since the start and we’re getting better and it’s showing on the ice.”

Battlefords kicks off 2017 with a road game in Swift Current on Thursday, Jan. 5 against the Legionnaires. Then on Dec. 7 and 8 they are in Regina to take on the Pat Canadians in another double-header.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

AAA Stars can’t find way to beat Pat Canadians

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