Hockey Notebook: High school hockey finals open

The Sault Ste. Marie high school hockey league championship series kicked off on Sunday evening at the Essar Centre.

Mitchel Robinson scored two goals and two assists as the St. Mary’s Knights opened the series with a 5-2 win over the St. Basil Saints. Dallas Jollineau chipped in with a pair of goals and an assist for St. Mary’s while Daniel Cicchini also scored.

Dom Gervasi scored both goals for St. Basil.

Game two in the best-of-five final is set for Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at the John Rhodes Community Centre while game three is Wednesday at 8 p.m., also at the Rhodes.

****
MIDGET THUNDERBIRDS OPEN GNML SEMI

The Soo Thunderbirds of the Great North Midget League were back in action over the weekend hosting the first two games of their GNML semi-final series against the North Bay Trappers.

The Thunderbirds opened the series with a 4-2 win on Saturday afternoon before taking game two on Sunday evening by an 8-1 margin.

On Saturday, Matt MacKay scored a pair of power play goals for the Thunderbirds in the series-opening win. Ryan Mulligan and Lucas Miller also scored.

Mickey George and Jacob Delisle scored for North Bay.

On Sunday, MacKay had a goal and three assists while Matt Murray and Jakob Porco had a goal and two assists each. Mulligan and Brendan Gillis chipped in with a goal and an assist each. Zach Sanecal, Brad Thrower and Nolan Makkonen also scored.

Robert Ranger scored the lone Trappers goal in game two.

Game three is set for North Bay on Feb. 28.

****
EAGLES SWEEP WARRIORS

The Soo Eagles regular season continues to wind down as the team hosted a pair of games at Pullar Stadium over the weekend against the Michigan Warriors in North American Hockey League action.

On Friday night, four different players had goals as the Eagles opened the series with a 4-1 victory. Jake Hamilton, Brad Pung, Patrik Koch and Keegan Miller scored for the Eagles while Sandis Zolmanis and Mitch Vanderburg set up two goals each.

Alex Berardinelli had the lone Warriors goal.

On Saturday night, goaltender Chad Catt stopped 36 shots as the Eagles completed the sweep with a 3-1 win. Zolmanis had a goal and an assist for the Eagles while Trevor Cope set up a pair of goals. Raymond Brice and Bruno Birzitis also scored for the Eagles.

Dalton Skelly had the lone Warriors goal on Saturday night.

The Eagles, who improve to 26-21-1 with the sweep, return to action on Thursday night when they open up a three-game series on home-ice against the Springfield Jr. Blues. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.