Saturday, January 29, 2011

Stars Climb Into Third With a Win in Melfort.

The Battlefords North Stars once again find themselves on the verge of .500 after a 4-1 win in Melfort Saturday night. Kyle Birch made 36 saves, and the Star's took advantage on the power-play to earn their third straight win over Melfort.

After killing off three penalties in a row in the first, the Stars went up 1-0 on Keith Grondin's 28th of the season. Grondin converted on a tic-tac-toe passing play that Kyle Hall and Braedon Johnson set up.

Late in the first, Kyle Birch made his first of several big stops off of Melfort sniper Jesse Mireau.

The Stars made it 2-0 in the second period on a five-on-three when Tanner Schwab re-directed a puck past Charles Corsi for his 12th of the year. More solid saves from Birch would follow and the visitors led 2-0 after two.

Cody Folstad would increase the lead at the 2:00 mark of the third. His goal also came on the power-play.

Kyle Birch's shutout bid was foiled mid-way through when Spencer Mault buried on a pin-point wrist-shot from the left-side.

64 seconds later Kyle Hall finished off another nice passing play from Grondin and Johnson, and the Stars sealed their 4-1 win.

The Star's penalty-kill was a big difference as Melfort was held 0-6 on the man advantage.

Granted the Mustang's were missing some important bodies: Wall, Metz, Nabseth and Wihak, but the Star's strong effort was commended by coach Ken Pearson post-game.

The win moves the Stars to 23-24-1-1 on the year and for now they sit in third place in the Bauer Conference.

The Stars are back in action Tuesday in Yorkton.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounded like a great game last night... Where are all the comments??? The stars lose and there are 19 posts the stars beat win and the place is silent.... Good work stars and keep it up. Go Stars Go...

Anonymous said...

Well the stars did play 60 mins of hockey last night way to go stars. But kind of wandering if this will continue we seen it all season so far.Are they going to be CONSISTENT well thats to be seen.So if these new lines don,t work is pearson going to change it up again. I saw this all season long it is just about playoff time and pearson still juggling lines around.Flip a coin to see which player is playing with who.The season will be over and he will still be trying to figure out the lines.I don,t think that is very fair to the boys if they can,t play together with the same team mates for any length of time.How are they expected to blend together and be CONSISTENT if the lines keep getting juggled over and over and over.

Anonymous said...

Thats halarious... A good coach will juggle lines to see who plays good with who... Its a great thing to do. If one line isnt going you juggle things up to see if it works.. Does Zetterberg Datsyuk and Holstrom always play together??? NO they dont, they some times do but not all the time.. You try and balance out the scoring...

mongo said...

well for the first anonymous poster your wondering where all the comments are, most of us have better things to do then sit and read about other peoples opinions and takes, since you just call them down know nothin about hockey. if you know so much about it y arent you coaching???? now that being said nice win for the boys last night but like the one poster said consistent, what will happen this week in yor mel amd flon. if they win 3 out of 4 then you can say they coming around but if it is less then that it will be disappointing. i believe they can win all 4 if they put forth a CONSITANT effort like they did in mefort. like i said before i hope the boys prove me wrong

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous 3: Heres a scenerio: Your in game 6 of the North Final. Lindensmith Eggum and Carre have been playing together all year and this game the other team has keyed in on them and they are not producing... Do you switch the lines and hope another combination works? I think the coaches job is to find the best line combination he can get. If Melforts game plan was to Keep the Tatchell, Grondin Phaneuf line in check and all of a sudden the game starts and its Grondin with Hall and Johnson and Tatchell with Schwab and Phaneuf as a coach you've done your homework... Now the other coach has to throw his game plan out the window because the line you told your team to watch is all split up... To me thats coaching....

Anonymous said...

Depth up front y'all. We've got depth up front! Our D is coming along nicely and goaltending is peaking just at the right time. Stars hockey is getting exciting, now hopefully the home town(s) fans will support this team on the move!

Anonymous said...

Mongo, stick to playing the music. The boys aren't in Flon this week!

mongo said...

bzzzzzzzzzzzz wrong answer i am not the musicman so next guess. so why are you hiding as ANONYMOUS to scared people make fun of you like you do to everyone else. my point is those important games on the road if we dont win them we wont get 3rd flon will or even humboldt, but dont exspect you to pick up on that. i agree with the changing of lines can throw different mixes at teams and they wont be able to match up since we going to be road warrior all threw the playoffs gives us the edge.i sure hope people starting coming to the rink attendence has not been that great all yr may have had 2 games all season that had over 1000.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 5 I see that you have never played any hockey in your life.I have and when you get to play with the same team mates you as a line find a good chemistry .If you keep getting switched around with different line mates your learninig all over again.Ya i guess Gretsky and Kuri never played on the same line together for any lenght of time HA HA HA give your head a shake.

Anonymous said...

I don't buy the theory of the last poster...Hall, Grondin and Johnson had unbelievable chemistry last night and they haven't played together all season.