Mils drop final pre-Christmas matchup 5-1 to the Battlefords

The Melville Millionaires dropped their final game before the Christmas break, losing 5-1 to the first place Battlefords North Stars at the Horizon Credit Union Center.

In the 1st, the North Stars would strike first just 10:30 in as Troy Gerein would knock home his 8th of the season to make it 1-0. Just 3:07 later, the Stars would make it 2-0 as Layne Young would pounce on a rebound and slip home his team leading 18th of the season. The North Stars would add a couple more on the PP off the sticks of Levi Kleiboier and Ben Allen to make it 4-0 after 1 period.

After a scoreless 2nd period, the Mils would get on the board with 5:35 left in the 3rd period as Mathieu Jallabert would score beautiful, highlight reel goal going back-hand top shelf by Taryn Kotchorek for his 7th of the season to make it 4-1. Thats as close as the Stars would get one late on the PP by Keaton Holinaty to give the SJHL-leading Stars a 4 goal win.

Taryn Kotchorek got his 16th win of the season making 34 saves for the North Stars while Brandon Wells made 44 saves in the losing cause.

The Mils return to action on Friday Dec 30th when they take on the Yorkton Terriers for the 6th installment of Highway 10 battle. GX94 will broadcast the game with Yorkton Dodge Junior Hockey, pregame 7:20 pxp at 7:30 from the Farrell Agencies.