The Battlefords North Stars put their four-game winning streak on the line Tuesday in La Ronge and the Bauer Conference leaders battled to a one-goal victory.
The North Stars had newly acquired Cole Gibson in the lineup as well as Travis Sparrow, who missed one game due to an injury.
The La Ronge Ice Wolves struck first blood three minutes in when Logan Herauf beat Kyle Birch.
Five minutes later, the Ice Wolves' top trio and the top three in SJHL points, Doug Lindensmith, Marc Andre Carre and Travis Eggum, struck on the powerplay with Lindensmith beating Birch.
Later in the first, the North Stars got on the board, as Keith Grondin netted his 23rd of the season. Kyle Hall and Colin Phanuef had the helpers.
Three minutes later, Grondin was at it again, this time on the powerplay, as Blake Tatchell and Phanuef set him up to beat Adam Bartko.
Both teams had plenty of scoring chances in the first, as the shots were 15-14 in favour of the North Stars after 20 minutes.
Three minutes into the second, Grondin completed the hat trick while the North Stars were shorthanded. Woody Klassen drew the assist on Grondin's team leading 25th goal.
Twenty-two seconds later, the North Stars saw their lead vanish, as Lindensmith scored his second of the game.
The score stayed the same for the remainder of the second, but there was a fight between Cris Neurauter and Travis Eggum after Neurauter threw an open ice hit to spark the excitement.
Another fight broke out in the third, this time between Robbie Newton and Skylar Hladun, and five minutes later there was more scoring when Graham Smerek scored on Birch. That held up to be the game-winning goal and the shot that stopped the Birch and North Stars winning streak at four games.
Birch made 25 saves in the loss while former North Star Adam Bartko stopped 38 shots in the La Ronge net for his 19th win.
Lindensmith, Carre and Grondin were named the game stars.
While the Ice Wolves were 1/8 on the powerplay and the North Stars were 1/4.
The North Stars won't have to wait long to try to avenge the loss, as they host the Ice Wolves Friday at the Civic Centre for the final meeting of the regular season between the two rivals. The North Stars are 2-3-0-0 against La Ronge this season.
The Battlefords hold the fourth spot in the SJHL's Bauer Conference with a 19-21-1-1 record and two points in front of Flin Flon.
Saturday, the North Stars head to Waldheim to play the Notre Dame Hounds and their next home game is Tuesday against Nipawin.
