After experiencing a tough trio of losses on the road, the Norman Northstars returned to the C.A. Nesbitt Arena Nov. 24−25 to face-off against the Winnipeg Wild.
Since the Wild are currently ranked first in the Manitoba Midget AAA Hockey League, the Northstars had a tough time keeping up with their fiery offense throughout the weekend and ultimately fell by a final score of 7−1 and 10−1, respectively.
Saturday’s game started out passively enough, with Winnipeg only managing to gain a three-goal lead after 40 minutes of play.
However, a lot of that had to do with Northstars’ goaltender Braedin Melsted, who kept his team in the game by making 37 saves out of 40 shots to close out the second period.
Unfortunately, Melsted could only carry his team for so long. Without any solid defense or offensive firepower to back him up, the Northstars’ wheels began to really fall off in the final 20 minutes of the contest.
Even with a single goal courtesy of Hunter Rambow, the Wild kept plugging away at the Northstars’ net, scoring four goals in the third and tallying an a grand total of 63 shots by the end of the game.
This wasn’t helped by the fact that the Northstars were missing a couple key players in their line-up like Jamie Valentino, Albert Sinclair and Richard Ducharme, who sat out Saturday’s game due to suspension or other disciplinary factors.
Even with Valentino back in the line-up during Sunday’s game, the Northstars still couldn’t capitalize on most of their palpable scoring chances, which gave the Wild ample opportunity to riddle goaltender Rylan Potkonjak with a total of 43 shots.
Once the smoke cleared at the end of the third period on Sunday, the Wild walked away with a decisive 10−1 victory and a comfortable spot at the top of the league.
Despite this frustrating result, Northstars coach Glenn Laycock heaped praise on Melsted’s performance on Saturday, mentioning that his actions on and off the ice has been one of the team’s biggest bright spots so far this season.
“He’s a leader in the dressing room too,” Laycock told CHTM Radio following Saturday’s game. “He’s the guy that, at the start of the year, was picking up kids that were running into problems with school and weren’t showing up and he’d go get them out of bed and stuff like that.”
Next weekend, the Northstars will be heading out on the road to compete against the Pembina Valley Hawks and the Winnipeg Bruins Nov. 30−Dec. 2.
Following that trio of games, the Northstars will return to the C.A. Nesbitt Arena Dec. 8−9 for their final home series of 2018, where they will be taking on the Eastman Selects.
