Tuesday night at the North Battleford Civic Center, the Battlefords North Stars defeated the Nipawin Hawks 3-1. Blake Peake scored twice, while Brett Miller added a single for the Stars.
Early on it was the Ryan Kerpan show. The Nipawin netminder (and former North Star) made a TON of key saves, and for awhile it looked as if the Stars wouldn't be able to beat him. Enter Blake Peake(22), who one-timed a Josh Daley pass through Kerpan at 12:16 of the first period.
The Stars out-shot the Hawks 15-9 in the first period, and at least 10 of those shots were quality chances.
The Stars increased their lead at 6:32 of the second period on Blake Peake's(23) second of the night. Peake grabbed a Shay Neufeld rebound and lifted a backhand over Kerpan to give the Stars a 2-0 lead.
The Hawks would inch within one late in the second thanks to a nifty two-on-one play setup by Jonothan Ceci. Ceci threw a nice pass to Jeff Lorenz, who then skated in two-on-one with Matt Guerts. Stars defenceman Grant Fahnhorst did his best to sprawl onto the ice and intercept the pass, but the puck slid underneath him to Guerts, who deked Hildebrand to make it 2-1.
The third period did not get off to a good start for the Stars. Nathan Tomac and Josh Daley took early penalties, and the Stars were then dinged for too many men on the ice. But Nipawin couldn't seem to get set up.
The Stars weathered the storm, and then grabbed a 3-1 lead off a terrible turnover from Kyle Brkich. Brkich threw the puck right up the middle, onto the stick of Grant Fahnhorst, who then sent a low shot towards the net. Brett Miller grabbed the puck, and roofed a backhand for his 17th goal of the season.
In the end, the Stars outshot Nipawin 41-23, and went 1-4 on the powerplay. Nipawin went 0-7 on the man-advantage.
Stars netminder Graham Hildebrand grabbed his third straight victory and lowers his already impressive GAA and save percentage.
With the Stars victory and the Ice Wolves losing 8-2 in Humboldt, the Stars sit alone in second place in the Bauer Conference with four games still in hand on La Ronge.
Up next for the Stars, a Saturday night battle with the Notre Dame Hounds.
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Personal thoughts:
It was a great night at the Civic Center. The crowed seeme bigger for a Tuesday, and the Stars made very few mistakes.
All four lines provided great pressure down low in Nipawin territory, and the Nipawin defence at times seemed unwilling and unmotivated to get dirty with the Stars in the corners. There wasn't a single passenger on the Star's bench tonight.
The Stars did a fantastic job tonight of holding the Spafford, Leclerc, Dusyk line off the score sheet. Before the game, I highlighted the statistics of Spafford and Leclerc, and they had an enormously difficult time getting going tonight.
I'm looking forward to the next Hawks-Stars matchup on Sunday night.
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