By Nathan Kanter

North Stars win fifth straight for first time this year

Oct 28, 2016 | 11:08 PM

They peppered over 50 shots on net, scored eight times for the second straight game, and saw production from all four lines.

It truly was a scary night if you were a Yorkton Terrier facing off against the rolling North Stars on Friday night.

The final score was 8-2 for the home side at the Civic Centre.

“We stuck to our game plan,” associate coach Braeden Johnson said following the team’s fifth straight win this season. “Obviously when you have an outcome like that, there’s lots of things to draw from and to build off of. So we were definitely happy.”

It may have been déjà vu from Tuesday’s 8-2 win over Kindersley, but it was also a night of firsts.

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Both Connor Jensen and Jayden Nachtegaele notched their first career junior A goals and first goals as North Stars.

“It was something,” Jensen said of his goal. “I really just was kind of expecting to get the pass to [Connor] Manegre off the faceoff but Troy [Gerein] managed to get the faceoff from Macgregor [Sinclair] to me and I just tried to shoot the puck and it went in… I was quite happy about that.”

Jensen also had a Gordie Howe hat-trick after adding an assist and topping it off with a fight.

“It wasn’t really a part of the plan but I was just protecting a teammate,” Jensen said, referring to the Terriers going in hard on goaltender Taryn Kotchorek. “You’ve got to stand up for him.”

Other than those firsts, the second line stole the show, specifically the duo of Connor Logan – who had three points for the second straight game – and winger Keaton Holinaty, who had two goals, his sixth and seventh of the year.

Holinaty only had three goals all of last season for the Drumheller Dragons, while Logan only had 19 points last season for the Prince George Spruce Kings of the BCHL.

This season Logan already has 20 points in 18 games.

“They were probably our most consistent offensive threat,” Johnson said. “You have to give credit to Connor Logan, I think he played extremely well tonight. On that second Holinaty goal, he really turned nothing into something and fed him back door. That hockey IQ, again, it’s something that’s hard to teach and it’s harder to defend.”

Johnson also made sure to credit Holinaty for going to the net with his stick on the ice on both of his goals.

“Give credit to Holinaty for driving to the net and going to the dirty areas,” he said. “You’re going to get rewarded when you do that.”

Interesting, Johnson said this recent outpouring of offence – to the tune of 34 goals in 5 games – has been made possible because of quick zone exits.

“It starts with the communication in our own end,” Johnson said. “I think we get the puck out fairly easy with our communication and our systems and making the guys buy into that and when you get the puck out quick you can have that much more time in the offensive zone.

“I think the guys are having fun. When you’re having fun, you create a lot of offence. I think they’re feeding off each other … [and] putting pucks into areas that they can outwork and get to.”

The North Stars will look for their sixth straight win on Saturday night at the Civic Centre against the 7-6-1-1 Notre Dame Hounds.

Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m., with the Ultra Print pre-game show getting underway at 7:15.

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