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Stars top Hawks thanks to overtime magic

Dec 16, 2018 | 7:39 PM

With just over a minute gone in 3-on-3 overtime, Quintin Loon-Stewardson jumped over the boards to join his elder brother Elijah and Cody Spagrud on the ice.

Carrying the puck out of his defensive end and through neutral ice, Spagrud then relayed a feed to Elijah Loon-Stewardson who broke in. Picking up speed, and knowing without so much as a moment’s glance where his brother would be, Elijah then dropped the puck back to Quintin, as he had done several hundred times before, in the driveway and on the schoolyard rink growing up.

Upon receiving the pass, and again, just as though he had practised for this moment all throughout his adolescent hockey life, the rookie known as “Q-Loon” proceeded to snap a quick shot on goal, eluding the Hawks’ netminder through the five-hole to bring in the North Stars’ Christmas celebration and bring the Stars’ faithful at the Civic Centre out of their seats with joyous jubilee one final time before the mid-season break, as the Battlefords North Stars defeated the Nipawin Hawks 2-1 Sunday evening at the Civic Centre.

After a scoreless opening period that saw the Hawks take an 11-7 lead on the shot count, it was Nipawin who opened the scoring, breaking the goose egg just over a minute into the second, thanks to Josh Lester’s second goal of the season.

Coming off a scramble play resulting from a blocked shot in front, the puck bounced and skipped around off a maze of bodies and sticks in front with both teams alike swatting away at it like a fly in a crowded elevator.

Unfortunately for the North Stars, and fortunately for the Hawks, when the puck finally did decide to calm down, it was slammed home by the 18-year-old Lester to give the best defensive team in Saskatchewan junior hockey the 1-0 lead.

Rather than be disheartened by the 1-0 deficit, the Stars only seemed to gain motivation from the Hawks opening tally, coming out flying off the ensuing faceoff and fuming back on the shot count, testing the goaltender a staggering 17 times in the middle period.

Despite still trailing heading into the third, the team’s trademark of persistence along with their penchant for coming back in third periods continued with the Stars finally breaking through not quite half-way through the period with a goal of their own thanks to a Braydon Buziak contribution to make it 1-1.

Coming off a nice three-way passing play, Buziak’s tying goal also marked a personal milestone, giving him double digits as his tenth of the season.

Due to solid goaltending from each respective side, regulation time drew to a close without another goal.

With the scoring of Quintin Loon-Stewardson’s overtime game-winner, Chad Duran picked up his first win as a North Star, improving his personal record to 1-1-1 through his first three games with the club.

Stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced to deliver the victory for his team, the Littleton, Colorado product, has been lights out since coming to the Battlefords, having now stopped a total 69 of the 74 shots he’s faced since donning the Stars’ crest, good for a .932sv% over the span.

At the other end of the ice, SJHL rookie Patrick Pugliese turned aside 39 of the 41 shots he faced to secure his team a single point in the standings.

The North Stars will now get just under two weeks off for Christmas break, before returning to action Dec. 28 for their first of back-to-backs against the division-rival Kindersley Klippers.

 

Scoring summary

First period:

None

Second period:

1:06 NIP Josh Lester (2) ASST: Austen Flaman (15), Jake Tremblay (14)

Third period:

9:40 BAT Braydon Buziak (10) ASST: Brett Gammer (7), MacGregor Sinclair (24)

Overtime:

1:59 BAT Quintin Loon-Stewardson (7) ASST: Elijah Loon-Stewardson (14), Cody Spagrud (18)

2-1 final, Stars.

 

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1