By Martin Martinson

Stars’ captain clinches thrilling OT win

Dec 7, 2018 | 10:54 PM

Tied 2-2 with the final seconds left in overtime quickly dwindling down, Stars’ captain, Cody Spagrud picked up the puck in his own zone. 10…9….8, with the clock rapidly dropping, and time seemingly going faster by the second, he had not so much as a moment to glance back at the score clock, all he knew was that the time was short, and his team needed a hero.

…7…6..5, Rushing the puck up ice and busting in on the attack, Spagrud crossed the offensive blue line and steamed his way in on goal like a runaway freight  train. At the last moment, 4..3..2.. he fired a shot – and while initially stopped by the goalie, the rebound was jammed by Owen Lamb, and then suddenly, “Spagrud.” then “HE SCORES! He scores! Cody Spagrud has won the game in overtime with 0.7 on the clock!”

Jamming the puck home on the rebound, and banking his team two points in the standings, the captain of the Stars put the team on his back in the dying seconds of a pivotal game, to deliver his squad to victory. 3-2 North Stars, the final.

The Battlefords North Stars took home a thrilling 3-2 overtime win Friday over the La Ronge Ice Wolves in La Ronge.

Antonio Di Paolo opened the scoring late in the first period for the home-side on a power play goal. Wristing one on goal from the blue line the puck seemingly had eyes, eluding traffic and going straight in for a 1-0 La Ronge lead.

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The goal marked Di Paolo’s seventh of the season, and second power play tally in his last two games.

Despite a Stars’ offensive press dominating large stretches of the first forty minutes that ultimately lead to a 29-17 shot advantage for the team through the first two periods, the Ice Wolves would carry their single-goal lead into the third period where they would then score again, giving themselves an insurance marker at 2-0 thanks to Flynn Perry’s first of the year just 29 seconds into the regulation time period.

Rather than be deflated, the North Stars continued to trudge forward, sticking with their game plan and pushing the pace, confident their hard work would prove fruitful.

Nearly half-way through the third, that hard work would pay off, thanks to an Owen Lamb chance the North Battleford native jammed home in front to cut his team’s deficit to one; 2-1 Ice Wolves read the score.

Feeding off the momentum and relief of a hard-earned breakthrough the Stars cranked up the dial to yet another level, buzzing on the attack and sensing a moment to strike like sharks to blood.

One of those sharks, Ryan Gil would strike, exactly one minute after Lamb’s initial tally to put the team on the board. For Gil, the goal marked his fifth goal and 10th point of the season-series with the Ice Wolves. The newest Star, Dayton Heino, picked up his first point with the club with an assist on the play.

After regulation time came to a close tied, that meant 3-on-3 overtime was next on the menu; by the time Spagrud scored to put the game to rest, the North Stars had absolutely peppered the opposition with shots, 49-27 the final count.

Goalie Joel Grzybowski was solid throughout, making 25 stops to backstop his team to victory.

The Stars will now get some time to rest up before heading back into action Tuesday night against Nipawin at the NB Civic Centre.

Scoring summary

First period:

18:37 LAR Antonio Di Paolo (7) ASST: Jake Gudjonson (15) (PP)

Second period:

No scoring

Third period:

0:29 LAR Flynn Perry (1) ASST: Stewart Pond (1)

9:34 BAT Owen Lamb (16) ASST: Elijah Loon-Stewardson (13)

10:34 BAT Ryan Gil (12) ASST: Dayton Heino (5)

Overtime:

4:59 BAT Cody Spagrud (7) ASST: Owen Lamb (10)

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1