North Stars rookie, Bradley Blake (#10) leads the team in swarming goaltender Ulrik Roussel following Friday’s 6-3 victory on home ice over the Broncos. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Back in the win column

North Stars bounce back with big 6-3 win over Broncos

Oct 2, 2021 | 1:05 PM

The Battlefords North Stars came out Friday night with likely their best performance yet of the young season, topping the division rival, Humboldt Broncos 6-3 on home ice in North Battleford.

Five different players scored for the Stars in the victory, to put the team back in the win column and improve their record to 3-1-1.

Dylan Esau (2G, 2A) bookended the scoring on his way to a four-point night, while Holden Doell and Bradley Blake both scored their first career SJHL goals; Jake Southgate (1G, 1A) and KT Walters added a goal each, and Dace Prymak collected three assists.

In net, goaltender Ulrik Roussel stopped 25 of 28 shots against, including a couple of pivotal stops at key points in the game for the win.

At the other end, Humboldt’s Logan Kurki scored a goal and two points for the Broncos (2-1-0), while Alec Saretzky and Samuel Marburg also scored, and goalie Rayce Ramsay made 28 saves on 33 shots in the loss.

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Esau’s first of the season opened the scoring on the power play for the Stars, coming off a quick-release wrist shot, just over 14 minutes into the contest to make it 1-0 Battlefords.

Saretzky’s third of the season then knotted the game 1-1, just over two minutes later, which is where the score would remain to the end of the opening frame.

In the second, Humboldt took their first lead of the evening just 1:10 into the middle period, when Kurki picked his spot and sniped his second of the season to make it 2-1 Broncos.

However on the very next shift, the Stars would answer with one of their own, re-establishing a tie game at 2-2 just 11 seconds later. After Southgate drove the front of the Humboldt goal, centerman, Holden Doell converted the rebound with quick hands in tight for the first of his career.

*Doell was originally credited with his first career goal Saturday in Kindersley, but that goal was re-credited to defenceman, Jordan Grill as his first.

Three minutes later, Marburg made it 3-2 Broncos at the 4:09 mark of the second, on a power play one-timer, set up off a dazzling puck control display by Kurki.

Then, with Humboldt on the power play again, with a chance to stretch their lead, it was again the Stars’ hometown hero, Southgate answering the call for his team.

Tanner Klimpke stripped the puck from a Broncos’ player at the Stars’ blue line, skating up ahead to then hit Southgate in-stride, busting in on goal. Like a young Maurice Richard at the Montreal Forum, Southgate again bared down on goal, lowering his shoulder to hold off the defender with a fiery determination in his eyes.

As he cut in towards the blue paint at full stride, Southgate then still had the presence of mind and soft touch, to chip a shot far-side, over the sprawling goaltender and into the net.

A highlight-reel goal, short-handed, the tally gave Southgate his third of the season, also making it a new game again, at 3-3 to end the second.

Just a night after the Stars entered the third 3-3 in La Ronge, only to fall 8-3 with five against, unanswered, the team showed in spades their ability to respond positively from adversity in a big way.

This time, it was the Stars who scored early in the third to break the deadlock, as KT Walters notched his third of the season, and second in as many nights, to make it a 4-3 Stars lead.

Then, just under three minutes later, it was the rookie in his first career game, Bradley Blake giving the team an insurance marker at 5-3, on a highlight-reel goal of his own.

Picking up the puck just inside the blue line, Blake danced around a Broncos’ defender, going inside-outside on him, before taking the puck to the net.

Faking as though he was going to take the puck behind the goal, Blake then moved the biscuit from below the goal line, back out in front, only to slide it all-in-one-motion between the legs of the Broncos’ goalie for a first goal worthy of a Sports Centre Top 10.

Esau’s second of the game capped the night, into the empty net, for three unanswered goals in favor of the home team, to end the game 6-3 Stars.

The North Stars will now get Saturday and Sunday off, before returning to play early next week for the league showcase. There they will face Melville Monday morning, and Yorkton Tuesday night.

Both games will be available on 1050 CJNB. The Ultra Print Pregame Show will begin Monday at 10 a.m., with puck drop to follow at 10:30 on the NAPA Auto Parts North Stars Hockey Broadcast.

Scoring Summary

First period:

14:13 BAT Dylan Esau (1) ASST: KT Walters (3), Dace Prymak (3) (PP)

16:06 HUM Alec Saretzky (3) ASST: Matthew Perkins (2), Rhett Gibson (1)

Second period:

1:10 HUM Logan Kurki (2) ASST: Connor McGrath (6), Nicksha Eric (4)

1:21 BAT Holden Doell (1) ASST: Jake Southgate (2)

4:09 HUM Samuel Marburg (1) ASST: Logan Kurki (6) (PP)

9:05 BAT Jake Southgate (3) ASST: Tanner Klimpke (1) (SH)

Third period:

2:22 BAT KT Walters (3) ASST: Steven Kesslering (5), Dylan Esau (1)

5:12 BAT Bradley Blake (1) ASST: Ryland McNinch (2), Dylan Esau (2)

18:06 BAT Dylan Esau (2) ASST: Jordan Grill (3) (EN)

6-3 North Stars, the final.

—

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1