All smiles: Stars' goalie, Adam Dmyterko celebrates with Dylan Esau (#28), and the rest of his fellow teammates, following Saturday's 5-2 victory over the rival Klippers at the Civic Centre. With the victory, the Stars have now won 5 straight games. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Play it again

North Stars repeat the feat: top Klippers 5-2 for second straight night

Jan 4, 2020 | 11:58 PM

Call it déjà vu or Groundhog Day, but it was a familiar story in the back-half of the home-and-home series between the Battlefords North Stars and Kindersley Klippers Saturday night at the Civic Centre.

Despite the change in venue, for the second time in as many nights, the North Stars topped the Klippers 5-2 to sweep the teams’ weekend set and delight the hometown Battlefords’ crowd.

Matthias Urbanski scored a pair on the night for the Stars, while Austin Becker picked up a goal and three points, Rylan Nivon collected a goal and two points, and Steven Kesslering notched a tally of his own.

Between the pipes, goaltender Adam Dmyterko supplemented the Stars’ offensive output with 31 saves on 33 Kindersley shots to secure the 5-1 Battlefords’ win on the night.

Kindersley’s Jaxon Georget and Sean Michalevich scored for the Klippers in the loss. Netminder, Matt Sankner was pulled after allowing three goals on 10 shots while in relief, backup Steven Bacovsky allowed two goals on 10 shots against.

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Rylan Nivon’s tally opened the scoring just 1:15 into the opening period, coming in highlight-reel fashion on the one-timer.

Austin Becker began the play, blazing into the Klippers’ zone on the rush chance, before then serving up a gorgeous dish cross-seem on the plater for Nivon. In the blink of an eye, Nivon then proceeded to hammer the puck top shelf over the hopeless goalie, for his 12^th of the campaign. The tally threw the home crowd into hysterics early, making it 1-0 Stars.

After Jaxon Georget tied things up for the Klippers briefly around the midway mark of the first, the Becker-Nivon tandem then again connected with centerman, Quintin Loon-Stewardson playing primary distributor on the play.

Picking up a relay feed from Nivon behind the net, Loon-Stewardson then carried the puck to the side of the goal before slipping a perfect centering feed on the tape for Becker to deposit on the back door. Becker’s 15^th of the season, the goal made it 2-1 Stars to end the first.

In the second, Matthias Urbanski took over with two goals of his own, sandwiching a lone tally by the visitors.

Urbanski’s 14^th ended the night for Matt Sankner in the Klippers’ net, beating the goalie clean while cutting down the left-side boards to make it 3-1.

Then about four minutes after Sean Michalevich potted his fourth for Kindersley, Urbanski again reestablished a two-goal lead for his team. This time Urbanski’s contribution came on the power play, tapping home another crisp Becker feed for his second of the night. With that, it was 4-2 at the end of forty minutes.

In the third, Steven Kesslering put the finishing touch on the night’s scoring entries. Kesslering’s goal came cashing in on a two-on-one with a textbook snipe, top corner to make it 5-2 Stars, the final.

With the win, the North Stars add to their lead atop the SJHL standings as the team improves to 32-6-2 on the season. With 66 points, the Battlefords sit a staggering 13 points up on second place Flin Flon amongst the league’s elite.

Meanwhile, with the loss, Kindersley fall to 14-19-6 on the year and remain just outside the playoff picture.

The North Stars will return to action Wed., Jan. 8, when the team will welcome the Nipawin Hawks to town for a showdown at the Civic Centre.

Wednesday’s game will be broadcast on NAPA Auto Parts North Stars Hockey on 1050 CJNB. The Ultra Print Pregame Show will begin at 7:15 p.m. with puck drop to follow at 7:30 p.m.

Scoring summary

First period:

1:15 BAT Rylan Nivon (12) ASST: Austin Becker (23), Seth Summers (24)

7:12 KIN Jaxon Georget (5) ASST: Ethan Mack (5)

13:14 BAT Austin Becker (15) ASST: Quintin Loon-Stewardson (19), Rylan Nivon (34)

Second period:

8:59 BAT Matthias Urbanski (14) ASST: Quintin Loon-Stewardson (20), Jaxon Steele (7)

10:45 KIN Sean Michalevich (4) ASST: Noah Lindsay (1)

14:54 BAT Matthias Urbanski (15) ASST: Austin Becker (24), Ben Hiltz (18) (PP)

Third period:

2:05 BAT Steven Kesslering (6) ASST: Kaden Boser

5-2 North Stars, the final.

—

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca
On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1