The North Stars beat the Kindersley Klippers last night 3-2 in overtime (Byron Hildebrand/Facebook).

By Austin Mattes

3-2 OT WIN

North Stars pull through in overtime to beat Klippers

Mar 15, 2025 | 2:22 AM

In their final home game of the regular season last night, the Battlefords North Stars ended up beating the Kindersley Klippers 3-2 in overtime to keep their chance for sixth place alive.

To start off the game, the North Stars struck right away, getting a goal just 40 seconds into the first period, coming from Braden Nienaber to take a 1-0 lead.

As the period went on, the North Stars continued to control the game, keeping Kinderlsey deep in their own zone which resulted in another goal for Battlefords, coming from Josh Knittig to extend the lead to 2-0 going into the second period.

Coming out for the second, the North Stars started to slow down a bit and had a hard time getting things going offensively. Then after a few Battlefords penalties, the Klippers had some chances on the powerplay and converted on one of them to lessen the gap and make it a 2-1 game.

Throughout the rest of the period, the Klippers really started to kick things into gear, putting on some good offensive zone pressure and finding lots of quality shots. Still, Kinderlsey couldn’t even the score as Justen Maric made some huge saves to keep the North Stars up 2-1 going into the third.

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For the third period, the Klippers came out strong, lighting the lamp just three minutes into the period to tie things up 2-2. Then in the final 10 minutes, the North Stars started to find their rhythm again and even had six minutes of powerplays but still couldn’t retake the lead, forcing the game to overtime.

Overtime didn’t last long though as the North Stars came out with a man advantage for the first 30 seconds and sealed the deal just 18 second in on a goal from Josh Knittig to take the win 3-2.

The North outshot the Klippers 46 to 35, went 1/6 on the powerplay and stopped Kindersley five out of six times on the penalty kill.

Justen Maric came in huge for the North Stars, stopping 33/35 shots and made some big saves throughout the game to keep the team in it.

Battlefords record now improves to 28-22-3-2 on the season for 61 points, keeping them at 7th overall in the league but still just one point behind the Humboldt Broncos.

The North Stars take on the Klippers again tonight at the Inter Pipeline Arena in Kindersley for the final game of the regular season. If the North Stars win tonight, they will overtake the Broncos in the standings and finish the season at 6th place in the league.

Puck drop tonight is 7:30 p.m. and don’t miss any of the action with the Napa Auto Parts North Stars Hockey Broadcast on CJNB/CJNS with Ultra Print pregame show starting at 7:00 p.m.

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes