The Norman Northstars earned their first point of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League season during a home game in The Pas Nov. 9, dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to the Parkland Rangers.
Taggert Plouffe scored the sudden-death winner to give the Rangers the win after they never held the lead through regulation time. Brayden Kohlman scored with 1:36 left to play in the third period to tie the game 4-4 and send it to extra time. Jordan Pfoh had scored a power play goal for the Northstars about six minutes earlier after Plouffe had scored for Parkland early in the third period to tie the game for the first time.
Dredyn Robinson opened the scoring for the Northstars with the only goal of the first period while his team was on a power play. Pfoh’s first of the game made it 2-0 Northstars early in the second period but Mackenzie Menard got the Rangers on the board a few minutes later. Robinson’s second of the game re-established the Northstars’ two-goal lead but Hreckhka scored before the second intermission to draw Parkland within one with 20 minutes to play.
Shots in the game were 58-35 for the Rangers, and Northstars netminder Linden Gamblin made 53 saves in the loss.
The Northstars held their opponents scoreless through nearly the first half of the second game of the series Nov. 10 before Hayden Lacquette put the Rangers up 1-0 in the second period. Hrechka added a shorthanded empty-netter with 39 seconds left in the game to make the final a 2-0 shutout for Parkland. Gamblin made 29 saves in the game, which saw the Northstars outshoot Parkland 33-31.
The Northstars are on home ice again Nov. 16-17 at the C.A. Nesbitt Arena in Thompson, taking on the Southwest Cougars, who are currently fifth in the 13-team league, 16 points ahead of the Northstars, who are tied with the Kenora Thistles for the least points in the league, with each team having just one overtime loss and no wins yet this season.
