Stars Reach First Place in the Bauer Conference

Last night at the Civic Center, the Battlefords North Stars grabbed their fourth straight home-ice victory with a 5-4 victory over the Humboldt Broncos. It was the second meeting of the season between these teams, and the North Stars have won both of them.

Humboldt opened the scoring on the powerplay at 5:40 of the first period when Nick Keller stuffed a puck underneath Kyle Birch.

The Stars would counter at 14:53 when Brett Miller's (4) shot from the right circle eluded goaltender Andrew Bodnarchuk on a powerplay.

The second period belonged to the North Stars. Shay Neufeld (4), Blake Peake (4) and Jesse Lebreton (4) all scored in succession to give the home team a 4-1 lead.

Griffin Lacey scored late in the second period to give Humboldt some life in the third period.

Midway through the final stanza, the Humboldt Broncos scored twice in 21 seconds to tie the game at four. Spencer Braaten (again!) found his way past the North Star's defence and beat Kyle Birch on a breakaway, then Mitch Peeke scored on a rebound.

The North Stars were then forced to kill off a Brody Malek roughing penalty, and just when it looked like Humboldt was gaining full control, the Stars quashed their momentum and grabbed it back at 16:59 of the third period.

Mitch Wall and Ryan Andersen cycled the puck wonderfully in Humboldt territory, and Andersen then fed the puck out front to a wide-open Miller who baet Bodnarchuk for his second of the game, and team leading fifth goal of the season.

Kyle Birch did the rest. He made a great stop on Justin Buzzeo with one second remaining to cement the two points for the Stars. The victory places the Stars into first place in the Bauer Conference.

"A year ago, we probably don't win a game like this," said Stars Assistant Coach Blair Atcheynum during the Valley Ford radio post-game show. "But we stuck to our game plan, and we used our size and speed to our advantage."

Up next for the Stars, a three-game road swing down south which starts Thursday night in Wilcox against the Notre Dame Hounds. Thursday's game is an 8:00 tilt, and the Sask-Tel Pregame Show gets going at 7:45.