Austin Nault of the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers moves across the crease before sliding the puck past Battlefords North Stars goalie Adam Dmyterko to win the home game in a shootout on Oct. 24 at the West Central Events Centre.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
It took two shootout wins last week for the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers to continue a current hot streak. The team has earned points in nine straight games.
The Klippers are 8-0-1 in the past nine games with the only blemish being a 3-2 overtime loss at the hands of the Yorkton Terriers in the first game of the team’s recent six-game home stand that ended on Saturday night with a 3-2 win against the Notre Dame Hounds in a shootout.
A five-game winning streak, nine-game point streak and an overall record of 12-3-1 have vaulted the Klippers into first place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings and to 16th in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s top 20 ranking.
The team also earned a shootout win at home on Oct. 24 against the Battlefords North Stars, and the game also ended in a 3-2 score. The scores were the same, but the scoring went down differently in each of the wins.
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Battlefords scored 11 seconds into the first period and Kindersley tied the game with about four minutes left in the first period. The game stayed tied 1-1 until the North Stars broke the deadlock four minutes into the third period. The Klippers tied the game with 18 seconds left in the third and the goalie pulled for an extra skater.
Tyler Traptow jammed a loose puck between the goalie’s skate and the post to tie the game. Josh Fletcher scored the team’s first goal and Austin Nault had the deciding goal during the shootout to lift the Klippers to a fourth consecutive win.
The story was different on Saturday against the Hounds. The teams traded a pair of goals each in the first period, and that was all the scoring until the shootout. Kyle Bosch and Josh Fletcher scored for Kindersley, and Caden Benson scored the only goal for either team in the shootout.
The Klippers had 42 shots compared to only 18 by the Hounds on Saturday and the home team had 47 shots compared to only 23 for the North Stars. Clayton Jardine, the head coach, agreed the team is showing character by winning close games that are not very close.
“We’re making a lot goalies look really good,” he said, recognizing that the shot totals would be more frustrating if the team was not winning the close games and it is positive to be doubling opponents in shots and getting scoring chances. “Goal scoring comes in streaks and right now it doesn’t seem to be coming, but we’re still getting the wins.”
Jardine praised the leadership in the room. He said the players are sticking with the game plan and playing until the bitter end to tie games late and win games in the shootout. He said the strong leadership makes his job easier.
He noted that the leadership is important, but it also helps to have strong goaltending. Justen Close has played the bulk of the games this season coming off a year when he shared the league’s top goalie honours with Declan Hobbs of the Nipawin Hawks.
Close and Hobbs are at it again this season. Close has a 1.96 goals against average and .930 save percentage in 12 games compared to Hobbs who has a 1.86 goals against average and .944 save percentage in 11 games. The one big difference is Hobbs has recorded four shutouts and Close has none.
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