Knights and Saints in the hunt after NOSSA openers

The first day is complete in the Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) AAA Hockey Championships with both local teams in a position to make a push for an all-Sault title match.

Action opened on Tuesday morning at Memorial Gardens as St. Basil knocked off the Lasalle Lancers from Sudbury 5-2.

Brandon McCaig led the way for the Saints picking up two goals and assisting on two others in the win. Nathan Richichi, with a shorthanded marker, Mike Dias, and Mark Porco scored the other St. Basil goals.

Tim Clarke and Rory Duval, shorthanded, provided the scoring for Lasalle.

In the second game, St. Mary's rode two goal performances from Matt Kudyba and Jacob D'Agostini en route to a 7-3 victory over the St. Joseph's/Scollard Hall Bears from North Bay.

Both of D'Agostini's goals came on the man advantage while Kudyba also scored a goal on the power play. Kyle Drewitt, Jordan Rochetta and Erik Diboll also scored in the win.

Jordy Cobb, who scored twice including a power play marker, as well as Jesse Champagne, scored in the loss.

Tuesday night saw two more games as St. Mary's nipped Lasalle 4-3 while Scollard Hall edged the St. Basil Saints 3-2.

In the first game of the evening, St. Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period as Vinnie Scornaienchi scored in the opening minute of the game and Kudyba scored a shorthanded marker midway through the period.

Lasalle had a chance to cut the lead in half late in the period but were denied after hitting a goal post.

Lasalle, who played the game with a short bench, had another chance to cut the St. Mary's lead early in the second period but Gary Bayrack was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway by St. Mary's goaltender Justin Soltys.

Duval got Lasalle on the board with just under four minutes left in the period with a power play goal and then tied the game under a minute later, moments after a big save by Soltys.

St. Mary's lost the services of Diboll late in the period with an undisclosed injury.

Early in the third period, St. Mary's lost the services of another player as Scornaienchi was handed a five minute major and a game misconduct for cross checking. The Knights received some big saves from Soltys and some key defensive plays to kill of most of the penalty.

A penalty to Lasalle would put the teams in a four-on-four situation and St. Mary's took a lead they would not relinquish as Joe Thorburn beat Lasalle goaltender Matt Wright to give St. Mary's a 3-2 advantage.

Anthony Amadio scored into an empty net with 45 second left before Craig McNabb scored for the Lancers with 26 seconds left to make the score 4-3.

The win put St. Mary's into a favourable position heading into Wednesday morning's action with a 2-0 record after day one.

St. Mary's coach Dave Barton was pleased with the effort, although the game did get a little too close for comfort near the end. Barton credited his goaltender in the win and also pointed to the kill of Scornaienchi's major penalty as two keys in the game.

"(Justin) Soltys stood on his head," Barton said of his netminder. "He deserves all the credit in the world. He's very quick. What he lacks in physical size he makes up for in quickness. (The Scornaienchi penalty) was a huge kill with a few big saves and a few blocked shots."

"(The win) puts us in a better position," Barton added. "Second chances (being able to come to NOSSA despite a loss in the city championship) are only as good as what you make of them and (the players) are committed to make the best of their chances."

In the final game of the day, St. Basil used a goal by McCaig late in the opening period to take a 1-0 lead after one period.

In the second period, Scollard Hall received two key goals from Brayden McLachlan, one coming early in the period and another coming on a penalty shot late.

Mike Olivera scored shortly after McLachlan's first goal to give St. Basil a 2-1 lead but Kyle Jokala scored with just under four minutes left in the period to set up the game winner.

McLachlan notched the winner after Scollard Hall was awarded a penalty shot when Eric Naccarato slid to block a centring pass and inadvertently covered the puck in the goal crease. McLachlan scored on the shot to give Scollard Hall the 3-2 victory after a scoreless third period.

St. Basil coach Steve Korab was not pleased with his team's effort on the opening day of the tournament, despite coming out of it with a win and a loss.

"These were the two worst games we've played in a while," Korab said of the win over Lasalle and the loss to Scollard Hall. "Maybe they think everything is going to come easy for us. There was a lot of celebration after the city finals (against St. Mary's). The kids thought they could just step on the ice and get to the finals."

In regards to their next game on Wednesday morning against St. Mary's, Korab expects the Knights to be fired up and looking to redeem themselves for their loss in the city finals.

"There's bad blood," Korab said. "(St. Mary's) is out to prove something."

Action continues on Wednesday morning at Memorial Gardens at 9 a.m. when St. Mary's and St. Basil's square off.

The Knights will be forced to play this game without the services of Scornaienchi as a result of his major penalty against Lasalle.

Lasalle and Scollard Hall then meet up at 11 am to cap off the round robin portion of the tournament.

The top two teams will then face off at 7 p.m. at the Gardens in the championship with the winner earning a berth to the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association (OFSSA) playdowns in London.

Should any teams finish tied in the standings, which is a possibility after Scollard Hall's win over St. Basil's, goal differential would be used to determine who moves on.

*** NOSSA AA:

In the NOSSA 'AA' tournament being held in Lively, just outside of Sudbury, the White Pines Wolverines, representing Sault Ste. Marie, picked up a tie and a loss on the first day of the tournament.

They opened the tournament with a 7-2 loss to the host Lively Hawks. Chris DiPaulo and Matt Premo scored the Wolverines goals.

In their second game, White Pines tied North Bay's West Ferris Trojans 4-4. Ryan Maunu led the way with three goals and an assist while Noah Rushon scored the other White Pines goal.

The Wolverines next game is Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. against the Lockerby Vikings.