"At times it wasn't pretty, but it was the most complete game we've played in the stats department," said Battlefords Stars' head coach Martin Smith after a 5-2 win against the Saskatoon Blazers Wednesday night.
The Stars outhit, outshot, out played and, most importantly, out scored Saskatoon to jump ahead of the Blazers in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League standings.
In the first period, the lone goal scorer was Ryan McConnell for the Blazers scoring shorthanded.
In the second, Dylan Fluter scored his sixth of the season on a scramble, as the puck just sneaked by Blazers' goalie Daniel Wapple. Ryan Suchorab and Justin Lund assisted on the goal.
Nearly six minutes later, the Stars scored again, this time it was Colby Cave from the slot for his fifth of the season from Cody Thiel and Jesse Gerbig.
The Stars picked up the physical play, but that didn't lead to any more goals, as they took a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Two minutes into the third, Blake Young increased the Stars' lead with his fourth of the season from Ryne Keller and Reece Fenrich. The assist was Fenrich's first point as a Star.
Saskatoon's Mitchell Schwark answered back for the Blazers making it 3-2, but that was as close as they would get.
Regan Santoro made some key saves in the third period and Eric Pfeifer scored on a point shot for his first of the season from Fluter and Colby Daniels for the insurance goal.
Fluter added an empty net goal from Daniels and the Stars sealed the victory.
The Stars outshot Saskatoon 32-27 and killed off all four of the Saskatoon powerplay chances while going 0/2 on their own powerplay opportunities. Smith said the team has set out goals to give up no more than 10 shots in a period and try to generate 10 to 15 shots. That was the case at the Civic Centre. Also, the team defence was a strong part of the Stars' game Wednesday night.
"We worked all day at practice on defensive zone coverage and we kept score and the losing team was going to skate. We worked hard yesterday and came in today and concentrated on our own end," said Smith.
Now as the Stars approach the halfway mark of the season, they hold the ninth spot in the standings with a 6-12-1-0 record and have played .500 hockey at home with a 5-5-0-0 record in front of the hometown supporters.
The Stars were practicing Thursday and then the players had the weekend off before going to Saskatoon Tuesday to play the first place Contacts. Thursday they will head to Beardy's to play the seventh place Blackhawks, who are two points ahead of the Stars in the standings. Nov. 27 and 28 they will host the third place Argos.
