By Martin Martinson

North Stars hope for payoff in showdown with Millionaires

Jan 12, 2019 | 1:00 PM

Less than 24 hours after defeating the Yorkton Terriers 5-2 in Yorkton, the Battlefords North Stars will continue the back-half of their weekend road trip. Awaiting the Stars is a hungry Melville Millionaires club at Horizon Credit Union Centre in Melville.  

The North Stars are 21-10-8 through 39 games heading into action Saturday and sit second in the Global Ag. Risk Solutions Division with 50 points, just three back of the division lead.

The Melville Millionaires, meanwhile, are 13-21-6 through 40 games, good for 32 points. Sitting third in the Viterra Division, Melville will be looking to try and snap a four-game losing skid tonight, coming off a tough 2-1 regulation loss to the Weyburn Red Wings Friday.

A large reason for the Millionaires’ struggles as of late has been their lack of offensive contribution throughout the lineup.

Melville has scored just a single goal in each of their last three games, with forward Luke Spadafora the only Millionaires’ player to notch greater than a single point over the span, having scored two goals in the three games.

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The North Stars have been rolling offensively, with three of the team’s four lines factoring in with at least a goal Friday, leading to no lineup changes amongst the forwards Saturday.

MacGregor Sinclair is coming off a three-point night with a goal and two helpers Friday. Sinclair leads the North Stars into action with 42 points on the season and will be flanked by Owen Lamb and Braydon Buziak on the team’s top line.

Elijah Loon-Stewardson with Quintin Loon-Stewardson and Matthias Urbanski also capitalized with a goal in their debut performance as a line, with Urbanski’s speed fitting seamlessly with the natural chemistry of the Loon-Stewardson brothers.

Ryan Gil, Regan Doig and Dayton Heino were the only forward line to not cash in with a goal last night but still managed to generate good pressure down low on the cycle, playing primarily a shutdown role on the night.

Brett Gammer, coming off a two-goal performance, will once again lineup to the right of Dylan Esau and Austin Becker on a unit that proved to be the Stars’ best at even strength against the Terriers, generating a number of scoring chances virtually every time the trio stepped on the ice.

On the backend, Stars’ captain Cody Spagrud is coming off a three-point performance in his return to the lineup Saturday that saw the defenseman factor in on three of his team’s four goals in the second period against Yorkton. The performance gives the Battlefords’ captain 28 points through 37 games this season, placing him fifth amongst defensemen in scoring.

Spagrud will once again line up next to Tanner Scott on the team’s top shutdown pair.

On pair two, Matthew Fletcher will be without his usual defensive partner in Seth Summers, as Summers will miss Saturday’s game sidelined with an injury suffered during a collision in last night’s contest. Filling in on the second pair in Summers’ place will be recently acquired defenseman Garrett Johnson.

Johnson, previously of the Drumheller Dragons of the AJHL, will make his North Stars’ debut tonight after being the Battlefords’ lone player acquisition Friday on SJHL trade deadline day.

On the third pairing, Austin Shumanski will draw back into the lineup tonight on the backend, joined by Noah Form on a big-bodied third unit built for a heavy game.

After getting last night off, Joel Grzybowski will get the start tonight, one week after his last start against Humboldt Jan. 5.

Saturday night will mark Grzybowski’s league-leading 31st start of the season. The Hafford, Sask., product sits amongst the league’s best in virtually every goaltending stat, ranking third in wins (15), sixth in goals-against average (2.49), and seventh in save percentage (.916).

Saturday night’s action goes 1050 CJNB with the pregame show at 7:15 p.m. and puck drop to follow at 7:30 p.m.

North Stars’ lineup at a glance

Forwards:

B. Buziak, M. Sinclair, O. Lamb

Q. Loon-Stewardson, M. Urbanski, E. Loon-Stewardson

R. Gil, R. Doig, D. Heino

A. Becker, D. Esau, B. Gammer

Defensemen:

T. Scott, C. Spagrud

G. Johnson, M. Fletcher

A. Shumanski, N. Form

Goaltenders:

J. Grzybowski

C. Duran

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1