HOCKEY ROUNDUP: North Stars, T-Birds win

The Soo North Stars are off to the finals.

The North Stars completed their second consecutive series sweep with a 6-3 win on the road over the Kirkland Lake 87's on Friday night for a 3-0 win in the best-of-five Great North Midget League semi-final series.

The locals opened the playoffs with a 3-0 series win over Valley East in the quarterfinals.

Matt D'Agostini led the North Stars with four goals while singles went to Frank D'Addetta, who also added an assist, and Matt Caria. Michael Sharp recorded two assists.

The North Stars will now face the winner of the other semi-final series between New Liskeard and Kapuskasing for the league championship.

New Liskeard leads the series 2-0 with game three scheduled for Saturday and game four, if necessary, on Sunday.

*** THUNDERBIRDS:

The Soo Thunderbirds used four second period goals to pace themselves to an 8-3 win over the Manitoulin Wild on Friday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action in Little Current.

Mike MacMillan opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds in the first period before Kelly Thomson, Jason Weigal on the power play, Darren Michelutti on the power play and Bryan Pearse scored in the second period to give the Thunderbirds a 5-0 lead.

Josh Leddy, Thomson with his second, and D.J. Jelitto scored for the Soo in the third period. Jelitto added three assists while Ryan MacKay recorded a pair.

Aaron Assinewai, Brent Assinewai, who added two assists, and Ian Hutchinson replied for the Wild.

The Thunderbirds peppered the Manitoulin net with 55 shots while Jarrett Michaels stopped 41 of 44 shots for the Soo.

The win improves the Thunderbirds record to 28-9-6-1 for 63 points.

The Western Division champions return to action on Saturday night against the Abitibi Eskimos in Iroquois Falls.

*** SAULT FEMALE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION:

Playoff action began on Tuesday night in the Sault Female Hockey Association.

In junior division play, Thessalon defeated Purvis Marine 3 - 2 as Haley Julien, Ellen Carroll and Katie Galec scored for Thessalon. Hillary Sayers and Emily Wright replied for Purvis Marine.

Two games were played in the intermediate division as Krista Zanatta led the way with three goals and one assist to pace Best Western past Station Mall 6-1. Also scoring for Best Western were Caroline King, Jessica Masters and Robin Koskela. Holly Maskell scored for Station Mall.

In the second game, Esquire Honda's Tamara Tyczinski and Holiday Inn's Laura Clement were both unbeatable in goal as the teams battled to a 0 - 0 tie.

Action resumed on Friday evening.