Tyler Traptow of the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers takes a whack at the puck at the side of the net on Jan. 18 during the team’s 3-1 loss to the Battlefords North Stars at the West Central Events Centre. Goalie Joel Grzybowski of Battlefords thwarts the attempt in close by Traptow, and it was one of his 30 saves in the win.

By Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers are going through a tough stretch of games since late in December and the tough times were added to last weekend.

Kindersley has played seven games since the Christmas break and the team has a record of 3-3-1-0 in that stretch. The Klippers have followed up each loss with a win, so they have not lost two games in a row. The team has not won two games in a row over that time as well.

What’s more, the Klippers have only played two teams since the break. The team played the Battlefords North Stars twice right after the break followed by four consecutive games versus the La Ronge Ice Wolves – the first two at home and the next two in La Ronge.

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The Ice Wolves are sitting in last in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings and Kindersley is among the league’s top teams, but La Ronge still won two of the four games. The Klippers only played once last week when Battlefords came to town.

Kindersley hosted the North Stars on Jan. 18 at the West Central Events Centre, and Battlefords skated away with a 3-1 win. The North Stars opened the scoring with four minutes left in the first period. A goal by Noah Bankowski tied the game eight minutes into the second period, but the North Stars broke the tie about half way through the third period.

North Stars sniper Braydon Buziak, who used to live in Kindersley, added the dagger with 20 seconds remaining in the third period before the Klippers had a chance to pull goalie Justen Close for an extra skater to push for the tie.

Battlefords had six power plays and Kindersley had five power plays, but neither team managed to score on the man advantage. Battlefords recorded 43 shots compared to only 31 shots for Kindersley, so Close stopped 40 of 43 shots in the game. Josh Fletcher and Steven Avalone assisted on the Bankowski goal.

The trend could have continued last night in North Battleford. Kindersley played the North Stars, but the result could not be published due to the Clarion’s print deadline on Tuesday. The Klippers’ next home game is not until Feb. 7 against the Yorkton Terriers.

Kindersley had an overall record of 25-11-3-2 before last night’s game, and the team’s 55 points is good enough for second place in the Global Ag Risk Solutions division. The team was one point behind Battlefords in the division. The Nipawin Hawks still lead the SJHL with 62 points.

Coach Clayton Jardine, who took his second bench minor of the season last Friday, said he was upset about his top centre Tyler Traptow being goaded into a fight, and he believed there should have been an instigator penalty given to Battlefords.

He noted that the officials did not agree, and he ended up with the penalty for sharing his thoughts on the subject. Jardine said regardless, it was just a poor game for his squad and nothing went well for the home team. He said the team’s power play was disappointing, especially when they did not score on a 5-on-3 advantage.

The coach said the North Stars worked harder than the home team and the visitors won a lot of the one-on-one battles. Battlefords came to play for 60 minutes while the Klippers did not show up, so it led to a lackluster effort.

“They showed up and they competed and we didn’t, so that was the most disappointing part,” he said, recognizing that he could not blame the team’s light schedule for the result because the North Stars have not seen the ice much either in the past couple of weeks.

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