The Battlefords North Stars still seem to be struggling with consistency issues, but did manage to win once during a three-game weekend road trip.
Friday night, Graham Hildebrand was looking for his third win of the season and thanks to plenty of second period offence he was able to achieve that.
The first ended 1-1 after Robbie Newton tied the game with his first of the season from Woody Klassen and Colin Phaneuf.
Weyburn scored early in the second, but Phaneuf responded for the North Stars from Blake Tatchell and Zach MacLellan. Three minutes later, the North Stars took their first lead when Newton scored his second of the game from Chris Neurauter. A Weyburn powerplay goal tied the game, but the North Stars capitalized on a powerplay of their own with three minutes left in the second to retake the lead, as Keith Grondin scored from Tatchell and Phaneuf. Tony Oak added his third of the season later in the second and the North Stars led 5-3 after two periods.
Phaneuf scored again in the first minute of the third period while Weyburn scored twice in the final period. It was too late as the North Stars held on to the 6-5 win.
Hildebrand made 26 saves for the win while Mitch Kilgore suffered the loss after making 28 saves.
Saturday night, it was Kyle Birch's turn to start when the North Stars took on the Estevan Bruins and a handful of former North Stars.
Birch lasted just 2:34 after making one save and allowing three goals, as former North Stars Ryan Anderson and Justin Waskewitch along with Cole Olson scored on Birch.
The goaltending change appeared to give the North Stars a spark, as Tim Rollins netted his second of the season from MacLellan and Shayne Morrissey. Rollins scored his next shift out, this time on the powerplay from Tanner Schwab and Neurauter.
Olson scored again for Estevan to increase the lead, but the North Stars tried to battle back when Klassen scored his fourth of the season from Schwab. The first period ended with the North Stars trailing 4-3 despite outshooting Estevan 20-12 in the first 20 minutes.
The teams traded goals in the second with the North Stars' goal coming on the powerplay off the stick of Grondin. Neurauter and Cody Folstad drew the assists.
Estevan added another goal in the third and the final score was 6-4. Joel Danyluk was solid for Estevan making 50 saves in the win.
The North Stars looked to finish off the road trip with a win in Wilcox against Notre Dame, but the Hounds had other ideas.
Three first period goals by Notre Dame, two of which were on the powerplay, put them up 3-1 after 20 minutes. Tatchell was the North Stars' goal scorer as Phaneuf assisted on his fifth of the season.
Grondin scored his third of the season early in the second, but Notre Dame answered with another powerplay goal and the score was 4-2 after two periods.
In the third, Grondin scored from Neurauter and Phaneuf on the powerplay, but the Hounds scored a powerplay goal into the empty net and took the 5-3 win.
Hildebrand was the losing goalie for the second straight night and Russell Abbott was the winning goalie with 28 saves.
The 3-7-1-1 North Stars were in La Ronge Tuesday to finish the stretch of five straight road games and will return to action Thursday at the Civic Centre against Yorkton.
In other North Stars notes, two players have been traded for future considerations. Forward Shay Neufeld was traded to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL and defenceman Taylor Egan was traded to the Trenton Golden Hawks of the OJHL. Egan played one game with the North Stars since joining the team in September while Neufeld had a goal and an assist in three games this season and 14 goals and 31 assists in 56 games last season.
