North Stars continue to roll

The Soo North Stars are on quite a roll.

The defending Great North Midget League champions have won 12 straight games including a weekend sweep of the Kapuskasing Flyers at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The North Stars picked up a 3-1 victory on Saturday night before defeating the Flyers 4-1 on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday evening, the North Stars used a pair of third period goals to pick up the victory as Brad DiCandia scored the winner midway through the period and GNML scoring leader Tyler Gendron sealed the win with just over two minutes left.

Mike Quesnele also scored in the victory while Steven Ramkumar scored for Kapuskasing.

A better overall effort on Sunday allowed the North Stars to skate away with the weekend sweep as the locals defeated the Flyers 4-1. The North Stars also received a strong effort from their top line of call-up Anthony Silvano, Tyler Gendron and Paul Dupont in the game as the trio combined for 11 points in the win.

After Kapuskasing opened the scoring in the first minute on a goal by Ramkumar, the North Stars took over.

After Silvano scored at 6:29 to get the North Stars on the board, Gendron proceeded to give the North Stars the lead just 27 seconds later. He increased the lead in the period's final minute to send the game into the first intermission with the Stars leading 3-1.

The teams battled through a scoreless second period, but not without losing players as Jake McClelland of the North Stars and call-up Randy McIntyre of the Flyers each picked up major penalties and game misconducts from referee Scott Raycroft for cross-checking at 16:26.

With each team playing with a slightly shorter bench in the third period, the North Stars sealed the victory late. Dupont banged home a rebound with less than three minutes left to seal the 4-1 victory for the North Stars, who improved their record to 19-1-1-1.

A pleased Mike Hall said following Sunday's win that he was happier with the victory on Sunday as he felt his team put in a more solid effort all-around.

"I thought we had more jump today (Sunday), than we did last night," Hall said. "To hold Kapuskasing, who hasn't given up that many goals this year, to just two goals in two games is a real credit to our kids."

He was also extremely pleased with his top line of Silvano, Dupont and Gendron, specifically in Sunday afternoon's game when they were in on all four goals and posted 11 points. Hall said that when that line is producing like they did Sunday, the team is usually successful.

The North Stars now prepare to hit the road to take on Kirkland Lake and New Liskeard on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

They don't play at home again until Dec. 18 and 19 against Rayside Balfour, which will also be the team's final regular season games before Christmas break.