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Measure of revenge as Stars beat Red Wings in Weyburn

Nov 19, 2017 | 9:28 AM

There is an old adage that revenge is a dish best served cold.

And for the Battlefords North Stars, this was the case as the dealt with the Weyburn Red Wings Saturday night.

On Nov. 11, the Red Wings squeezed out a 1-0 victory over the North Stars at the Civic Centre despite the Stars outshooting Weyburn 31-20 in front of over 1,200 fans.

It also marked the first time the North Stars had been shut out on home ice since Dec. 4, 2015 – once again at the hands of Weyburn.

Because of this, Stars head coach and general manager Brandon Heck said it was essential “to set the tone early,” 

“Come out with the same intensity as we did against Estevan on Friday and just play our game,” he said.

The North Stars exacted a measure of revenge skating to a 5-3 win at Crescent Place Arena, snapping the Red Wings three-game winning streak and allowing Estevan to pull even with the Wings for top spot in the Viterra Division after the Bruins defeated Humboldt that same night.

For the third consecutive game Matthias Urbanski found the back of the net for the North Stars scoring a pair (7, 8) in the game while MacGregor Sinclair, Dakota Huebner and Layne Young all chipped in with singles.  

Young’s goal (13) snapped a three-game pointless drought for the Stars captain who also had a pair of assists in the game to give him 34 points this season.

“Layne (Young) has played well during those games,” coach Heck said. “He has had his chances and with us also being on the road this week he sees the opposition’s best players every night with the last line change.”

As was the case in Friday night’s 5-4 win in Estevan, the Stars never trailed in the contest leading 1-0 after one period and 3-1 after 40 minutes of play. 

The Stars power play finally connected after going three straight games without a goal. The Stars scored twice on four power-play opportunities while the Red Wings went one for four with the man advantage.

Rookie Kolby Matthews stopped 34 of 37 shots for the Stars and improved his record to 9-1-0 this season with an impressive .911 save percentage and a 2.46 goals against average. Arik Weersink was not as dynamic as he was seven days ago when he shut out the Stars, allowing five goals on 34 shots.

The North Stars welcomed veterans Troy Gerein and Connor Manegre back in the lineup. The two were suspended for five games for their part in a Halloween night donnybrook in Kindersley which saw a line brawl following the Stars 4-1 loss to the Klippers.

“You can see Weyburn looking over their shoulders almost every shift,” Stars forward Jacob Tibbats said. “We just keep putting the body on them all night and good things happened.”

The Stars now have 29 points this season thanks to a 14-3-1 record in 18 games.

Battlefords remains third in the Olympic Buildings Division of the Saskatchewan Junior A Hockey league behind the Notre Dame Hounds (32) and the Humboldt Broncos (30), however, the Stars have seven games in hand on Humboldt and five on the Hounds.

The North Stars will use one of those Sunday when they travel to Yorkton to play the Terriers. 

Battlefords has owned the Terriers the past three season beating Yorkton in nine of their last ten meetings, including two wins this season already.

Game time is 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and it can be heard on 1050 CJNB, with the pregame show starting at 4:15 p.m.
 

 

roger.white@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @RJWtheReporter