It was a scary Halloween weekend for goaltenders during two weekend tilts between the Battlefords Stars and Yorkton Harvest in Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League action.
A total of 21 goals were scored in the two games, 10 for the Stars and 11 for the visiting Yorkton Harvest, during the weekend series at the Civic Centre, with the Stars and Harvest each notching one victory.
The first game Saturday night got off to a promising start for the Stars as they took a 2-0 lead on goals by Justin Lund and Dylan Fluter in the first period. Lund's goal came short-handed with Drew Siderberg of the Stars off for interference.
Yorkton got one back in the second before Blake Young scored at the 17:33 mark with assists from Fluter and Colby Daniels.
Levi Cable narrowed the margin to 3-2 and that would be the way the game would stay before a Jeff Olson's empty-netter sealed a 4-2 Battlefords Stars win. Regan Santoro stopped 26 of 28 shots in net to lead the Stars to victory.
The second game Sunday afternoon proved to be a penalty-filled shootout from the get-go, with the first period seeing the Stars and Harvest score three goals each.
Goal scorers in the first frame were Jesse Gerbig, Cody Thiel and Olson for the Stars, while Dustin Minto, Dustin Skiliter and Tanner LeSann scored for the Harvest. The latter two Stars' goals were on the powerplay while the latter two Yorkton goals were short-handed.
In the second, Daniels notched the lone marker for the Stars while Ben Johnstone scored for the Harvest.
The third period was a shootout, with Johnstone scoring again early on a powerplay before the Stars took the lead on goals by Ryne Keller and again by Olson.
But then came a Yorkton onslaught as Kade Halabuza tied it at the 10:55 mark, followed by the go-ahead marker by Josh Lees at the 12:04 mark and two late empty-net goals by Skiliter in the closing minute. The final ended up 9-6 for Yorkton.
The Stars are now 4-8-1-0 with Yorkton ending the weekend at 6-5-1-1.
Backing up to Thursday, the Stars were at home against the Saskatoon Blazers and fell 4-2.
Drew Soderberg scored for the Stars in the first period, in his first game of the season. Thiel and Daniels had the helpers on the game's first goal. Later, it was Matt McLeod on the powerplay and Conner Kortko scoring from Saskatoon taking the 2-1 lead after the first frame.
Maxim Powiada scored at 17:08 of the second giving the Blazers a 3-1 lead heading in the third period.
Soderberg scored his second of the game in from Dillon Forbes and Zackary Klebaum, but that was as close as the Stars would get.
Dillon Schwartzenberger added an empty net goal with seven second left sealing the 4-2 Blazers win.
Daniel Jahnke stopped 18 shots for the win while Blair Mahon faced 39 shots in the Battlefords' net.
The next action for the Stars will be Wednesday, Nov. 3, against Prince Albert at the Civic Centre.
