By Brad Coccimiglio
SooToday.com
Monday, November 02, 2009

The Soo North Stars tightened their grip on top spot in the Great North Midget League over the weekend.

The North Stars picked up three of a possible four points in a home-and-home series with the Nickel City Sons on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. In Sudbury, the North Stars picked up a 9-5 victory before the two teams battled to a 3-3 draw on Sunday afternoon in Sault Ste. Marie.

On Sunday the two teams traded goals three times before going scoreless in overtime.

Justin Cooke, Davis Boyer and Matt Zalewski scored for the North Stars while Mitchell Byrne scored a pair of goals and Darcy Haines scored the other goal for the Sons.

“I thought we out-chanced them throughout the game. Their goalie came up with some big saves,” said North Stars coach Mike Hall. “You’re never satisfied when you don’t win, but we’ll take the point and run.”

The North Stars played the game with four callups as the team battled through suspensions and a bug that saw a number of players playing through sickness. Michael Caruso and Tyler Brown of the Soo Thunder AAA Bantam team and Matt Honsberger and Mitchell Dionisi of the Root River Rangers AA Midget team filled in on Sunday.

“I’ve been coaching a long time and I’ve never had this much sickness and suspensions all at the same time,” said Hall. “It’s unusual for us to have four callus in the same game.”

On Saturday night Brandon Warmington had a big night with three goals and set up two others to pace the North Stars victory. Boyer added a pair of goals and an assist. Joel McCauley, Brian Nanne and Derek Batagin added a goal and two assists each while Zalewski also scored.

Byrne, Cody Gratton, Alex Bottigoni, Sebastien Leroux and Brett Dusick scored for Nickel City.

The game was a rough affair featuring 154 penalty minutes assessed to the two teams. Among the penalties saw seven players forced to serve suspensions on Sunday afternoon.

“I thought we played well in spurts (on Saturday),” said Hall. “There were a lot of penalties and our power play helped us. It was a gongshow to put it nicely. It was out of control for both teams.”

This weekend the North Stars travel to Sudbury to take part in the Big Nickel Tournament. The North Stars schedule kicks off on Thursday night when they take on the Don Mills Flyers at 8 p.m. On Friday, the North Stars will take on the Kapuskasing Flyers at 2 p.m. and Kitchener JR. Rangers at 9:30 p.m. They wrap up their round robin schedule on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 when they face the Vaughan Kings.