Stars Down the Klippers 6-5 in a shootout.

The Battlefords North Stars preseason came to an end Saturday night with a 6-5 victory over the visiting Kindersley Klippers.

Close to 500 fans lined the stands of the Civic Center, and watched a younger Stars lineup battle for every inch of ice with their Sherwood Conference Rivals.

It was Kindersley who grabbed the early momentum. They outshot the Stars 15-8 in the first period, and managed two goals.

The first came at the 6 minute mark courtesy of Travis Eggum on the power play. Eggum simply went to the net hard, and banged home a Jonothan Sonntag shot to give his team a 1-0 lead. Kevin Clark would then make it 2-0 at 18:36.

The second period was a different story. The Stars came out more physical, more fast and sooner than later they got a break. Blake Tatchell, Shay Neufeld and Mitch Wall came racing into the offensive zone, and a neat three-way passing play resulted in Mitch Wall burying the first Star’s goal of the game.

Mid-way through the second period the Stars got another break – but it came at a price. Ryan Toporowski was hit from behind by Klipper’s forward Kevin Clark. Topper’s night was done, and so was Clark’s. He was given 5 minutes and a game misconduct for checking from behind, and the Stars made good on the man advantage.

Myles Cameron let a shot go from the left point, and Klipper’s goaltender Riley Ross had trouble with the shot, he left a juicy rebound, and Ward Szucki pounced and scored the equalizer.

At 16:10 of the second, Tony Oak would give the Stars their first lead. His goal was a direct result of some hard work behind the Kindersley net by Boyd Wakelin and Nathan Tomac. Oak received a pass at the side of the net, and managed to stuff it home. Tanner Schwab would add a short-handed goal, and all of a sudden the Stars had a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.

Momentum changed early in the third, when Andrew Dommett scored on the first Klipper shot of the final stanza. It was definitely a goal that Stars goalie Spencer Laycock wanted back.

The Stars countered with a spectacular goal from Justin Waskewitch. He raced down the right side of the ice, and wired a slap-shot past the goaltender to give his team a two-goal lead back.

But from the mid-way point of the third period, the play was dominated by the Klippers. Taylor Duzan and Jordan Braid almost single-handedly won the game for the visitors. Duzan and Braid would score late in the third to tie it, and Duzan nearly won it for his team, but he dinged one off the goal post with just over a minute remaining in the game.

Overtime solved nothing, and a shootout was needed.

The first shooter for Kindersley was captain Jordan Braid. He skated in close, but was unable to get a shot away because Spencer Laycock poke-checked the puck away from him. Kindersley was 0-1.

The first shooter for the Battlefords was forward Ben Morgan. Morgan (a right handed shot), skated wide to the outside, cut back in and roofed a backhand shot over the stick of Josh Thorimbert. Many thought the puck hit the post, but it just managed to squeak underneath, it was 1-0 Stars.

Andrew Dommett was able to tie things up for Kindersley.

That set the table for Justin Waskewitch. Waskewitch used tremendous patience to out-wait Thorimbert, and snuck one into the net via the five-hole. The Stars led the shootout 2-1.

It was up to Taylor Duzan for Kindersley, and Spencer Laycock shut the door, and was able to solidify another preseason victory for the Battlefords North Stars.

The exhibition season was a tremendous success for the team as they finished with a record of 6-1. Now the tough part: The coaching staff for the North Stars has to decide on who stays and who goes.

Don’t miss the Battlefords North Stars first regular season game on Friday night, 7:00 from Kindersley. That game can be heard live on 1050 CJNB or www.cjnb.com