North Stars reign over Capitals

The Soo North Stars may have little to play for at this time of the season but the team continues to add more victories to the win column.

With first place in the Great North Midget League long secured, the North Stars can only focus on setting some new records and preparing for the playoffs, which begins in three weeks.

On Saturday afternoon, the North Stars turned in a solid effort and extended their nearly perfect GNML record to 29-2-0-2 with a 4-2 win over the Sudbury Lockerby Confectionery Nickel Capitals at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

North Stars head coach Mike Hall admits it is very tough to keep his team motivated to play right now but the key is keep on improving their game heading into the playoffs.

"It's hard to keep kids motivated when things are all but done for us but things are certainly not over for the other teams in our league. Sudbury is in a fight to get home ice in the first round and even the battle for the final playoff spot has only two points separating the teams. We won't get any easy games from our opponents," said Hall.

The North Stars opened the scoring 12:29 into the opening period on the power play when Michael Sharp took a lead pass and flipped a shot over Sudbury goaltender Kyle May's shoulder.

Sudbury rallied to tie minutes later when Dylan Butterfly found a loose puck in the slot and beat goaltender Michael Maulucci. The Capitals took a 2-1 lead early in the second period as Darcy Langella was allowed to take three or four whacks at a rebound and finally beat Maulucci.

Just 1:18 later, Sharp netted his second of the game when he roofed a shot over May while falling on his back to tie the game at 2-2. Matt D'Agostini, who later added an assist, scored the game winner before the period was out as he tipped a shot past May.

Adam Kauppi scored the only goal of the third when he directed a shot past May while lying on his stomach in the slot area.

Hall was happy with his team's ability to control the play and out shoot the Sudbury team by a good margin although he would like to see his team's play in their own zone improve.

"We have to improve in our own zone. There were times when we failed to pick up checks in our own end and I would also like to see us get the puck to the net a little net. I thought our back end played well again tonight which is nice to see. They were moving the puck up well to our forwards and not panicking with the puck.

"Our forwards need to do a better in our own zone. The goals we gave up were because of missed assignments but we'll work on that."

The North Stars played the game minus forwards Paul Dupont, who is suffering through a sprained ankle and could play but will not return to lineup this weekend as a precaution, and Tyler Lannigan, who served a one-game suspension for fighting in last Sunday's game against Rayside Balfour.

Sudbury, who are in a battle with four other teams for third place, fall back to the .500 mark at 15-15-0-1 with the loss.

The teams meet again on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Rhodes before returning to Sudbury for another contest on February 1st.