North Stars claim another GNML title

The Soo North Stars claimed their second consecutive Great North Midget League regular season championship with a weekend sweep of the Sudbury Nickel Capitals.

In similar fashion to a season ago, the North Stars cruised to the regular season title with nearly a month remaining on the schedule.

At the John Rhodes Community Centre, the North Stars skated to a 4-1 victory on Saturday to seal the championship before rolling past the Capitals 10-1 on Sunday.

The North Stars have now won 20 consecutive league games and hold a record of 27-1-1-1 through 30 games.

With six games remaining in the regular season, the North Stars will have their sights set on rewriting the GNML record book, again a similar situation to last year.

The club has a shot at setting the record for number of wins in a season, total points in a season and will look to smash the record for fewest goals allowed during a season.

While not pleased with their team performance during the previous three games heading into Sunday morning's contest, the North Stars regrouped for a solid team outing to cruise past the deflated Capitals.

GNML leading scorer Tyler Gendron paced the North Stars attack with three goals and two assists in Sunday's win.

Paul Dupont scored twice and setup two others while Derrek Coccimiglio added two goals and an assist. Midget AA call-up Adam Pymaki, Jake Reid and Brad DiCandia scored once and added an assist each.

Jason Bird recorded four assists while Trevor McNutt added a pair. Travis O'Brien picked up the win in goal while the North Stars outshot the Capitals 46-19.

"We hadn't played well the last three games and we were only playing well enough to pick up the wins. We are striving to be consistent," said North Stars head coach Mike Hall.

"We stressed before the game that we needed to get back to the basics and start doing those things well. Our big line showed up today and it's hard to go through the list and find somebody that didn't show up.

"Nobody likes to run up the score but when a team goes down by four or five goals they tend to let up. We have some guys in the scoring race and they took advantage of it today."

On Saturday, the North Stars broke open a 1-1 tie with three goals late in the third to score a 4-1 victory.

After a scoreless first period, Zac McNally scored the lone of the second period to give the North Stars a 1-0 lead.

After Sudbury tied the game with a power play goal early in the third period, DiCandia scored the game winner before Bird and Dupont added insurance markers.

Gendron recorded a pair of assists while Ryan Dube recorded the win in goal.

Forward Nick Minardi sat out games two and three of a four game suspension over the weekend and will be eligible to return next Sunday afternoon.

"Our biggest thing now is preaching consistency," said Hall. "We're not playing for much right now except for a few league records including most wins in a season. Consistency comes from working hard and we returned to working hard (on Sunday). Not too many people gave these guys credit at the beginning of the year and they continue to go out and prove people wrong.

"We have guys in that dressing room that went to the all-Ontarios last year and have seen what it is like there. We keep pushing them but the guys who have been there before are pushing them too. But I have yet to meet a kid who puts on his equipment to lose."

On the record breaking front, with six consecutive victories to close the season, the North Stars would tally 33 wins to eclipse the old record of 32 wins in a season held by last year's North Stars, the 1992-93 Soo Legion squad and the 1996-97 New Liskeard Cubs.

The North Stars would also need to win out in order to beat the record of 66 points in a season, again set by last year's edition of the North Stars. With six more wins, the North Stars would produce 67 points.

The most meaningful record for the North Stars is the mark for fewest goals allowed in a a season.

Last year, the North Stars allowed 87 goals to beat the 92-93 Legion mark of 96 goals. Barring a total collapse, the North Stars will destroy their own record as the team has allowed a minuscule 55 goals in 30 games.

Should the team hang on to set the defensive record, the goaltending duo of O'Brien and Dube would set the mark for the best combined goals against average in a season.

O'Brien teamed with Michael Maulucci last season to set the record with a 2.42 GAA.

On an individual level, O'Brien has an excellent shot of beating Willie Ciccone's record for best GAA in a season. Ciccone set the mark at 1.82 with the 2000-01 Timmins Majors.

In 16 games, O'Brien has posted a 1.63 GAA with four shutouts while Dube is also close to the record standard with a 2.05 GAA to go with two shutouts in 14 appearances.

Gendron, with 27 goals and 38 assists for 65 points, is on pace to secure the league scoring title as the sniper holds an eight point lead over Dupont, who has 25 goals and 32 assists for 57 points.

With the playoffs set to begin in February, the North Stars are doing some scoreboard watching as the team hopes to draw a first round matchup with a Sudbury-area team.

"We are kind of hoping to meet a Sudbury based team in the playoffs just for travel reasons," said Hall. "It's not like we don't want to play a particular team but a trip to Sudbury is better for us than an eight hour trip up to Timmins. I know the teams up north feel the same way."

The North Stars will be back in action at the Rhodes next weekend as the Valley East Cobras visit for a 7 p.m. contest on Saturday and a 1 p.m. matchup on Sunday.