A busy stretch of games for the Battlefords North Stars ended with a busy night on offence against the Melville Millionaires on Saturday night.
The North Stars fired 45 shots at Melville Saturday versus 27 for the Mils, and the North Stars needed every one of them because only three got by Melville鈥檚 Berk Berkeliev, for a 3-2 North Stars win on home ice.
It was Melville鈥檚 goaltending that kept the Mils in the game. In the first period the North Stars outshot Melville 23-8, but it was Rin Beny of Melville got the game鈥檚 first goal, beating Austin Schwab at the 7:36 mark.
Dylan McCabe tied it on a power play goal at 16:19, Austin Becker and Seth Summers assisting.
Just 47 seconds into the second period Noah Form鈥檚 goal from Caelan Fitzpatrick and Matthias Urbanski gave the North Stars the lead for good, with Logan Spence adding to the lead at the 14 minute mark from Form and Dylan Esau.
The period also saw some fireworks as a major fight erupted between the Mils Kolton Leslie聽 and the Stars鈥� Elijah Loon-Stewardson, with Loon-Stewardson getting the better of the exchange. In addition to major-fighting and game misconducts, Leslie got a boarding penalty and Loon-Stewardson the instigator penalty.
A power play goal from Beny brought the Mils closer at the 16:44 mark of period three, but that would be all the scoring. In the end Schwab got the win stopping 26 of 27 shots.
In the end head coach Brayden Klimosko did not seem overly concerned that Melville came back to make it a one goal game late.
鈥淚t makes us grit our teeth a little bit and get ourselves two points,鈥� Klimosko said, who credited good goaltending from Berkeliev.
鈥淲e had lots of chances. I think overall, we were able to squeak three and lucky three was enough tonight.鈥澛犅犅�
Klimosko also credited a lot of North Stars players for stepping up with several players out of the lineup due to injury, including Steven Kesslering, Jaxon Steele and Rylan Nivon; Nivon also missed the SJHL-MJHL Showcase in Regina due to injury.
The win marked the North Stars鈥� sixth in a row, coming on the heels of their 6-2 domination of Melfort the night before. Now the team gets a much-needed few days off after what was a busy last week for much of the squad.
In addition to the two games at home, there were eight North Stars players plus head coach Brayden Klimosko who were in action at the SJHL-MJHL Showcase. They also played four games the previous week.
The North Stars have six days until they are back in action versus Humboldt in a home and home, starting Friday at the Civic Centre and continuing Saturday in Humboldt.
鈥淭hey do deserve a few days off,鈥� said Klimosko. The plan was to give the players a couple of days off to rest up before resuming practices later in the week.
