The Nipawin Hawks were in North Battlefrod Friday for a showdown with the North Stars in SJHL action. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Jekyll and Hyde

Stars shine in win over Hawks

Nov 25, 2023 | 9:58 AM

The chances of the Nipawin Hawks first three-game winning streak of the 2023/24 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season was dimmed by the North Stars in North Battleford on Friday.

The Battlefords doubled Nipawin 6-3 to open the weekend home-and-home series that continues Saturday at the Centennial Arena. With road wins in Melfort and Melville in their last two games away from Nipawin, the Hawks looked for another at the Access Communications Centre where they defeated the North Stars 3-1 on Oct. 7.

Despite not getting a shot until the 12:08 mark of the first period and their second at 14:14 Nipawin led 2-0. Alex Bernauer and Maguire Ratzlaff each beat Ben Dardis, who was making his SJHL debut in goal for the North Stars.

The Battlefords tied the score at 2-2 early in the second period, but Chase Visser restored the Hawks lead beating Dardis on just the fifth shot of the game for the Hawks, with under 12 minutes to play in the second.

The North Stars bounced right back, tied the game, and scored three more unanswered goals cruising to a victory. Hawks Head Coach Tad Kozun was miffed by his teams’ performance after the game.

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“Way too many turnovers, you look at our penalty killing, we give up three power-play goals, we haven’t done that all year. Just not good enough, we didn’t move pucks, we didn’t do anything,” Kozun huffed on the postgame show on 750 Beach Radio.

The Hawks only killed off one of four minor penalties they took, Nipawin had a pair of powerplay opportunities that created no chances.

Damon Cunningham was on the hook for all six Battlefords’ goals on 25 shots, Dardis settled down finishing with 30 stops in his first win.

Kozun admitted the letdown was disappointing after he felt the team was turning a corner.

“You win two games in a row where we were a real good hockey team and then suddenly, we come out tonight and we play nowhere near our capability, nowhere near what the Nipawin Hawks are about. That’s some that Levi [Stuart, assistant coach] must figure out, we must put these wins together,” Kozun said.

Faceoff for the fourth and final meeting of the season between the clubs is 7 p.m. Kozun said his team will be expected to perform differently.

“We’ll get home and watch some video tomorrow morning and make sure we’re ready to go because we get the same team tomorrow. We need a much better effort, we need a much different team to show up and we have to find it again,” he concluded.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

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by Clark Stork

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Stars shine in win over Hawks

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