Stars Blank Terriers 5-0.

Tuesday night at the North Battleford Civic Center, the Battlefords North Stars shutout the Yorkton Terriers 5-0. Kyle Birch made 33 saves, and Shay Neufeld led the way with three points en route to victory.

The Stars capitalized early on the game thanks to some early powerplays. Brett Miller deflected home a Dominic Perrault point shot to net his 15th goal of the season. 56 seconds later Dane Muench scored his third of the season and quickly the Stars were up 2-0.

Yorkton coach Ed Zawatsky wasted no time in sending a message to his team. He pulled goaltender Joel Danyluk after only four shots!

Yorkton outshot the North Stars in the first period by a total of 12-9, but were unable to get their power-play going.

The second period yielded no offence, but Yorkton definitely held the territorial edge in the frame. Matt Chomyc had several chances for Yorkton, but Kyle Birch again stood his ground.

Yorkton got an early power-play in the third period but were unable to generate much of anything offensively. The Stars and Terriers went back and forth with little result until Tony Oak took advantage of a broken play and buried his second of the year. Shay Neufeld then used his wheels to get behind the Yorkton D and sniped on a breakaway and Blake Peake capped off the night with his 11th of the year on a two-on-one finish.

Shay Neufeld, and Blake Peake were the only North Stars to have multi-point nights.

Afterwards Ken Pearson spoke fondly of his team's resolve.

"I liked our forward makeup tonight. I thought all four lines had opportunities to score some goals. I thought Muench, Szucki and Tatchell played really well," said Pearson afterwards.

As for goaltending, Pearson said that Kyle Birch deserved the shutout. "Good for Kyle. He deserved it tonight. He's come close a few times this year. It's nice to see him be squared to the puck and make some good covers. Nice to see him rewarded that way."

Now the Stars will focus their attention to the SJHL Showcase. The Civic Center is going to be packed, and emotions will no doubt be running high as these SJHLers gather to impress the scouts, all while trying to leap-frog other teams in the standings.

We'll have both games on the air this weekend, starting with the Humboldt Broncos game starting at 7:45 Friday night with the Sask-Tel Pregame Show.