North Stars finish off on a winning note

The Sault Ste. Marie North Stars struggled to score in their 2-1 semi-final loss against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens, but they had no problem filling the net in the bronze medal game as they fired home eight goals in an 8-5 victory over the London Jr. Knights to claim the bronze medal at the Central Region Midget AAA Championships which finished off Sunday in North Bay.

The game was tied 3-3 going into the third period before the North Stars offence got into high gear scoring five times including an empty netter in the dying seconds of the bronze medal game.

Trevor McNutt and Brett Perlini scored two goals and Derrek Coccimiglio, Kevin Mills, Mike Rivard, and Brad DiCandia added the other North Star goals in the final game of the season for the GNML champions.

It was the last game as a North Star for a handful of players including goaltender Ryan Dube who was forced to leave the game in the second period with an ankle injury, but instead of going to the emergency to have it looked at the veteran goaltender just iced his ankle and stayed at the rink.

“It’s my last game as a North Star so I wanted to be out here on the ice with the guys when we got our medals and just didn’t feel right if I wasn’t here,” said Dube after posing with for a graduate photo while on crutches with his teammates who played their final game in the Blue, Gold and White.”

North Stars Captain Trevor McNutt was glad his team was able to finish things off with a win.

“Things didn’t go the way we wanted to but to finish off on a winning note you can’t go wrong I guess,” said McNutt.

It wasn’t easy to get the North Stars up and ready for a bronze medal game after Saturday’s disappointing loss to the Jr. Canadiens. However head coach Michael Hall tried to get them motivated by reminding them that they hadn’t lost two games in a row all season long and a victory on Sunday would make that impressive statistic official.

“There’s a lot of pride in that room the medal isn’t necessarily the color we wanted but to be in the top three teams in Ontario highly speaks of these kids and the organization.” said Hall about a team that lost only twice in regulation during the regular season and captured two tournament championships.

Jr. Canadiens win Gold

The Toronto Jr. Canadiens edged the North Stars to make it to the final but disposed of the Markham Waxers 6-1 in the Gold medal game which saw Waxers head coach Joe Cornacchia ejected from the game in the second period.

The Waxers took 17 penalties in the contest and the Jr. Canadiens scored three times with the man advantage in the tournament final.

Alex Galli and Stefan Smith had a pair of goals each for the Jr. Canadiens. Singles went to Chris De Sousa and Stefan Della Rovere. Ryan Gottschalk scored the lone goal for the Waxers.

In some ways it appears the Canadiens may have won the Gold medal Saturday when they defeated a more disciplined and tighter checking North Star team.

"It was two different types of games," said Jr. Canadiens head coach Phil David comparing the semi-final to Sunday's final.

"We knew yesterday would be a lot tighter and we had to be a lot more careful with our passes, these guys here they play like us, they are free flowing like us and we knew we had a bit more room to pass and we could try and generate some more offence in their zone and it worked thankfully," added David.