North Stars fire 72 shots in 5-2 win over Yorkton

“We were able to do it by not taking smart shots. Just putting it at the net,” he said. “When you win draws in their end, you get shots. If we shoot a little bit smarter and get rebounds, and realize what we are, we could have scored more tonight. Hopefully the guys will learn and then we’ll be better at that tomorrow.

“Not enough smart shots, not enough traffic. Guys didn’t arrive at pucks at time with anticipation. We weren’t changing stick angles, being deceiving. Couldn’t shoot in stride. [Maier] played well but we made it easier on him than we could have.”

Maier is a prized Saskatoon Blades prospect that will be representing Team Canada at the U-17 Hockey World Challenge in British Columbia next weekend. He almost won the backup gig for the Blades this season, but lost out to former North Star Joel Grzybowski, who is two years older than him.

Maier’s numbers in Junior A this season have not been great, but in his seven starts he has faced an average of 49.7 shots. Despite that, he has an .897 save percentage, after making 67 saves against the North Stars on Friday.

Battlefords did get things started off on the right foot.

They jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Levi Kleiboer, Layne Young, and Keith Anderson.

After 20 minutes, the shots on goal were 28-3.

“I thought our first period was definitely our best,” Heck said. “We were preaching a quick start for sure and when you haven’t played in a long time again, I was definitely worried about that. We were also very hungry to get going. Nice to see [we] bought into that.”

Heck pointed out that in the final two periods, the score was 2-2.

“The effort was there, I just think we need to be smarter,” Heck said. “The puck movement was good, so that was good to see.”

Dakota Huebner and Chaseton Braid were the other North Stars goal scorers, as Braid picked up his first goal as a North Star. Braid now has one goal and three assists in four games for Battlefords. Huebner, meanwhile, produced a goal and two assists on Friday to push his season total to 15 points in 10 games, good for second on the team behind Young.

Young also had a three-point night to move himself into a tie for second in the league with 24 points. The Frenchman Butte native has played six games less than Bruins forward Michael McChesney, who also has 24 points this year.

Kolby Matthews only faced 19 shots on Friday but go his fifth straight win as a North Star. He now has a 1.98 goals-against-average and .916 save percentage to go along with his perfect 5-0 record.

The North Stars will face the Terriers in a rematch at the Civic Centre on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

NorSask North Stars gets underway at 7:15 p.m. with the Ultra Print pre-game show.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

North Stars fire 72 shots in 5-2 win over Yorkton

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