It was a sad night at the North Battleford Civic Centre for Battlefords Midget Stars fans.
It was sad in part because the Stars were beaten 4-1 by the visiting Saskatoon Contacts despite outshooting and outworking the Contacts for most of the night.
But it was mainly sad because there are no more Stars games for the fans to watch at home. Tuesday's defeat marked the final game at the Civic Centre for this year - too soon for the dedicated supporters who braved the cold hockey weather to be there.
The Stars were eliminated from playoff contention on the weekend and will hit the road for three games to finish off the season.
The Contacts put the Stars behind early with a goal by Rhett Kehoe, with the assists going to Carter Cohen and Bryn MacNab.
The shots on goal in that period favoured Battlefords Stars 11-7.
The Contacts extended the lead in the second to 2-0 when Tanner Tyndall beat goaltender Regan Santoro. Cody Pongracz and Cody Pettapiece earned the assists.
Again, shots on goal favoured the Stars in the period 15-7 for a two-period total of 26-14, but the scoreboard read 2-0 for Saskatoon.
In the third Jesse Gerbig scored at the 8:16 mark from both Ryne Keller and Zackary Klebaum to make it a 2-1 game.
Saskatoon started to come on strong in the third period and scored two goals to finish off the Stars. The dagger came at 14:58 when Kohl Bauml beat Santoro, with Carson Stadnyk and Taylor Leier notching the assists.
The last goal of the game came at 17:06 when Stadnyk scored from Rhett Blackmur and Taylor Leier to make it a 4-1 final. The Stars, down two goals, had pulled their netminder Santoro with about three minutes left with the faceoff in the Contacts' zone, hoping to capitalize. But it was not to be as the Contacts scored the empty-netter.
Shots on goal were even in the third: 12 for the Stars and 12 for the Contacts. Mack Shields stopped 28 of 29 for the win for Saskatoon while Santoro stopped 35 of the 39 shots.
Despite the loss coach Greg Schmidt was happy with his team's effort, calling it one of the better ones in his time since taking over as coach.
"We played a good team game," said Schmidt. "We had a lot of opportunities to score - we hit a couple of posts and we weren't able to get a handle on the puck. The goalie made a few good saves."
The Stars were behind the 8-ball on the penalty kill for much of the game. They saw six players serve minor penalties and Saskatoon had two minor penalties, neither of which the Stars capitalized on.
Schmidt admits a couple of the Stars penalties robbed the team of some momentum. But on the positive side, the team was able to kill off all the penalties successfully. That was something the team had been working on, said Schmidt.
Still, a solid effort fell short. "We didn't get rewarded - that happens in sport," Schmidt said.
With the win the Contacts have their 27th win of the year, against 7 losses, 3 ties and 2 OT losses. Battlefords Stars now drop to 10-29-1-1 for 22 points.
The Stars aren't finished with the Contacts this season. Their next action is with them Saturday at Schroh Arena in Saskatoon. The Stars then play the Saskatoon Blazers at Harold Latrace Arena Sunday before wrapping their season up Feb. 17 in Prince Albert against the Mintos.
Schmidt said he wants the squad to keep on playing the team system he has in place for the remaining games of the season.
