North Stars close out record-breaking season with shutout

The 48 wins, 97 points, and 103 goals against are also all new franchise records.

“Did I think we were going to break records? No,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after the regular season finale. “It just slowly kept getting better and better. That was pretty special. Two great goalies, great defence, a whole bunch of forwards that buy in, and relentless on our [penalty kill].”

With 103 goals against in 58 games, the North Stars goals-against-average of 1.77 is also the best in the entire Canadian Junior Hockey League. The top-ranked Brooks Bandits of the AJHL are a close second at 1.78.

Battlefords began the year with just an 8-5 record. But a 10-3 win in Estevan in mid-October was the beginning of a 13-game winning streak.

Bedford said the Estevan game was a turning point in the season.

“[We’re] on the road, three games in three nights, against Estevan, who was flying at the time, and…I came into the dressing room and I just said ‘We want to do five things,’ and it was all defensive,” Bedford said. “We just changed our focus from being an offensive team. At the beginning I was an idiot and thought that we were going to be this high octane offence and I was going to come in and do all of these crazy things and…after we went 8-5 with the skill that we had, I went ‘I’ve got to do something different.’”

After that 8-5 start, the North Stars went 40-4-1 the rest of the way, including never losing back-to-back games.

On Saturday, the North Stars got two goals from Coby Downs and one each from Reed Delainey, Blake Fennig, and Bryce Hall.

Downs finishes the year with 29 goals and 72 points in just 46 games, while Delainey notched his 16th goal of the year. Fennig, an 18-year-old call-up from North Battleford, scored his second goal in two games. Hall’s goal was his third of the campaign.

Taryn Kotchorek stopped all 35 shots he faced for his fifth shutout of the season. He finishes the year with a 27-3 record, a 1.61 goals-against-average, and .936 save percentage.

“Kotchorek was lights out,” Bedford said. “I was pretty confident that if they got one, I would have bet my life that they wouldn’t get two. He was focused. He was dialled in. Jeez, what a great problem to have – two great goalies and two guys that can go any night.”

It is unclear who Battlefords will play in the quarter-finals, as only one survivor series has been confirmed: Weyburn will host Kindersley in the 8vs9 best 3-of-5 series. But the North Stars will have next weekend off for sure because of the bye.

“We’ll give [the guys] two or three days off and then we’re going to get back to practicing on Tuesday,” Bedford said. “We’ll go hard for the first week and have some fun the second week and we’ll have a better idea of who we’re playing as the days go on.”

Notre Dame has finished the season as the 7th seed, but the 10th seed is still up grabs, as it could be either Melfort or Melville, who wrap up their season on Tuesday.

The North Stars will face the lowest remaining seed after the survivor series is done, meaning it cannot be Notre Dame and will either be Weyburn, Kindersley, Melfort or Melville.

nathan.kanter@jobg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars close out record-breaking season with shutout

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