The Battlefords North Stars have hit the 90-point plateau in the regular season standings, through just 54 games, and went 2-and-1 over a tough weekend that saw them in Flin Flon twice, and capped it off with Sunday’s 3-1 win in Nipawin.
Kristian Lyon stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced in goal for the North Stars (44-9-2-0), who already clinched the top playoff seed on Saturday night. Seth Summer (1g-1a), Timon Prexler and Logan Spence did the scoring and Ben Hiltz added a pair of assists.
The Stars head into a 10 day break now, but if they come back and win their final four games, they’d finish with 98 points. The 2016-17 North Stars had 97 points, going 48-9-1-0 before eventually capturing the Canalta Cup, something last season’s 80-point (35-13-5-5) second place Stars team was also able to do.
The Hawks (28-21-3-1) scored on their first shot of the game when Caden Benson beat Lyon just 1:18 in, but that was it. Ross Hawryluk made 28/30 saves in the loss.
Nipawin remains in sixth spot in the standings, a point back of Melfort and three points out of a home ice spot, but they still have four more home games in a row, and the next three are all against teams below them in the standings, including a pair of non-playoff teams in Weyburn and Melville, followed by Estevan, and that goes into a regular season-ending home-and-home with Melfort, the team right in front of them, so the opportunity to move up is still there.
With the Family Day Holiday Monday upon us, the Kindersley Klippers have a must-win game in Humboldt Monday at 2:00. The Klippers trail the Broncos by six points with a game in hand, for the final post-season berth.
