In recent meetings at the Civic Centre, goals have been hard to come by when the Battlefords North Stars take on the Weyburn Red Wings.
That was the case once again Thursday night at Chaseton Braid found the back of the net in the final minutes to give the hosts a 2-1 victory.
“Weyburn’s a team that doesn’t give us much to work with so we really had to battle to get goals, even though we outshot them quite a bit,” Braid said.
“I thought we were all over them throughout the night, but their goalie [Arik Weersink] made some really good saves and we missed the net quite a bit as well on the chances that we had.”
Just minutes after fanning on a shot on a wide-open net after a feed on the power play by Layne Young, Braid made no mistakes on his second opportunity as he crashed the net off of a feed from Young and put the puck home with 1:51 left on the clock.
Red Wings head coach Wes Rudy and Weersink were not pleased that the goal stood, however, as they felt the Red Wings netminder was interfered with prior to the puck crossing the goal line.
The visitors had one more chance to tie the game with 14 seconds left on the clock, but North Stars netminder Taryn Kotchorek made a stellar shoulder save on Erik Olson to keep the lead intact.
Braid got the North Stars offence going early in the first period as his pass attempt went off of a Red Wings skate and into the back of the net.
The Red Wings would tie the game up a couple of minutes later as Tyran Brown scored just eight seconds into a power play opportunity.
It looked as if the North Stars had taken the lead in the dying seconds of the second period when Cole Johnson scored on a power play, but the goal was waved off due to an early whistle from a referee.
The top line was involved in all of the North Stars goals, with Young picking up two assists and Johnson helping to set-up Braid’s game winner.
Kotchorek made 18 saves in the victory to improve his record to 14-7-2 on the season.
Rookie Cade Kowalski had an assist on Brown’s power play marker for the Red Wings, while Weersink made 32 saves in a losing effort.
The North Stars will wrap up their seven-game home stand this weekend as they host the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Friday and the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday.
Both contests will begin at 7:30 p.m.
