North Stars sweep Nickel City

The Soo North Stars have come out guns ablazing in the Great North Midget League.

The North Stars outscored their opponents 27-7 in three wins and the trend continued over the weekend as the locals swept the Nickel City Sons, outscoring the Sudbury-based club 14-3 in a pair of games at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

“We’re not seeing selfishness (offensively) and that’s what we’ve been preaching since the beginning of the year,” said North Stars coach Mike Hall. “We did a great job of that, especially (Sunday).”

Anthony Stefano and Ryan Vendramin continued their torrid offensive pace for the North Stars in the weekend sent. Vendramin had a goal and three assists in Sunday’s 7-1 win while chipping in with a goal and two assists in Saturday’s 7-2 victory. Stefano had a goal and two assists on Sunday and a pair of goals and an assist on Saturday.

Stefano currently leads the team with eight goals and 19 points in five games while Vendramin is second with six goals and 15 points.

Also in Sunday’s win, Devin Shell had a goal and two assists while Jaren Bellini, Matt Mitchell, and Jaron Rowe had a goal and an assist each. Matt Pinder also scored in Sunday’s win.

Malcolm Bilton scored the lone goal Sunday for Nickel City.

Shell also had a goal and an assist on Saturday night while Rowe and Bellini had a goal and an assist. Mitchell also scored for the North Stars. Bilton and Denver Ghent scored for Nickel City in Saturday’s loss.

Nickel City received strong goaltending throughout the weekend, despite the lopsided scores.

“One of our strong points is in net,” said Nickel City coach Joel Whissel of goaltenders Kevin Labelle and Scott Vaillancourt. “Scott played outstanding (Saturday) and made some big saves to keep us in the game and Kevin played outstanding again today. They both give us a chance to win every night. I feel bad for them getting peppered with shots every game but they both battled and kept their heads”

Added Hall: “Both of their goaltenders played extremely well. They both made some big saves. The scores could have been a lot worse.”

The North Stars are on their road for three games beginning on Friday night when they take on New Liskeard. Saturday night sees the North Stars take on Kirkland Lake while they wrap up their road trip on Sunday in Timmins against the Majors.

Photo courtesy James Egan Photography

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