Major sweep by North Stars

The Soo North Stars hit the halfway point of their Great North Midget League schedule and they hit it on a winning note.

With the Timmins Majors in town to take on the North Stars, the Stars came out with a weekend sweep, defeating the Majors 5-1 on Saturday evening and blanking them 3-0 on Sunday afternoon at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

On Sunday, first period goals by Brett Perlini on the power play and Adam Pyymaki at even strength, turned out to be all the North Stars would need in a 3-0 shutout victory.

A third period goal by Trevor McNutt on the power play completed the scoring and the sweep for the North Stars. Ryan Dube, who was in net for Saturday's victory, picked up his fourth shutout of the season.

On Saturday night, the North Stars got a pair of goals from Brad DiCandia en route to the 5-1 victory. McNutt, Pyymaki, and Dean Howard added singles in the game. McNutt and Mike Rivard each added a pair of assists in the victory as well.

"(Saturday night) was probably the best game we played all year," said North Stars head coach Mike Hall. "Both in the back-end and front-end. We controlled 90 per cent of the play.

"We lost in Sudbury (in the semi-finals of the Nickel City Tournament) and everybody's asking 'What happened?'" Hall continued. "The thing we're happy about is that over the last six or seven games we've gotten great consistency.

"I thought Mark Hoffman was great (on Sunday)," Hall said of his veteran defenceman. "Offensively he was a threat. Defensively, he did a great job. Our second year players and our third year players really came to play. You go over our lineup over one or two games and it's hard to pick one player. We had a great effort from everybody."

The North Stars played the weekend series without the services of veteran defenceman Nic Lang and rookie forward Jerry Petingalo. Lang is expected to be out another month after rupturing a muscle in his groin.

Petingalo is scheduled to go for x-rays on Monday and the extent of his injury is still unknown. The rookie injured his knee during the Nickel City tournament. More will be known on Monday with regards to the injury's extent.

The North Stars homestand continues next weekend as they host a pair of games at the Rhodes.

On Saturday, the locals host the Sudbury Nickel Capitals in a matinee affair at 1:30 p.m. On Sunday, the North Stars will host the Valley East Cobras in a 1 p.m. start.