NORTH BATTLEFORD - It seems like any time the Notre Dame Hounds and Battlefords North Stars meet this SJHL season, you are in for a long, wild contest.
The two teams went seven shootout rounds on Tuesday in Wilcox, a 6-5 North Stars win. It went to overtime again Saturday as well, though it didn’t last quite as long as Jake Southgate’s goal 54 seconds into overtime resulted in a 4-3 North Stars win.
Still, it was another wild and crazy contest with back and forth play and lots of scoring, with Notre Dame coming from behind to almost win.
It was a game in which the North Stars had hoped to return to their usual winning form, after a subpar performance Friday in which they dropped a 5-3 result to Yorkton. For a while Saturday, they did seem to be back on track.
The North Stars got on the board first at the 7:59 mark of period one as captain Ryland McNinch scored his eighth of the season with assists from Keiton Klein and Ethan Scriven.
THe North Stars made it 2-0 on Dave Prymak’s seventh goal of the season from Jake Southgate and Jordan Grill with 2:55 remaining in the period, and that would be all the scoring in period one. Shots were even after one period 15-15.
In period two, a penalty to Easton Rask for interference at the 7:11 mark ended up being a costly one for the North Stars. Notre Dame scored a power play goal from Elliot Dutil from Kevin Anderson and Connor Nolan to pull within a goal at 2-1.
That would be the lone goal of period two, which ended with the North Stars ahead in shots 31-30.
In the third period the North Stars scored right off the faceoff at the 3:12 mark from Zane Florence, with Colby Bear and Brad Blake assisting.
At this point the North Stars seemed in complete command. But their lead vanished quickly as the North Stars wilted under a flood of penalties in the third period.
First, Matthew Henry went to the box for roughing, and then soon after, a huge scrap erupted in front of North Stars goalie Michael Harroch with the result being a boarding penalty to Dylan Esau.
That gave Notre Dame a two-man advantage and they immediately scored: Anderson scored from Sam Kroon at 4:38 to make it 3-2.
No sooner did that happen than the North Stars were hit with another penalty, with Tanner Gold getting called for high sticking.
Still with the two-man advantage, the Hounds tied it seconds later as Petil scored his second of the game at 4:38.
While both teams had chances the rest of the period, it remained deadlocked at 3-3 and both teams headed to overtime.
In the three-on-three overtime, it was Jake Southgate who was the hero for the North Stars, snapping a high shot that beat Hounds netminder Ryley Osland.
Final shots favored the North Stars 53-49. The North Stars’ Harroch stopped 46 shots in the win.
Next for the North Stars is their third home game in a row on Tuesday night versus the Kindersley Klippers.
