North Stars shutout streak continues!

The Sault Ste. Marie North Stars are known for their offence but their defensive play was the highlight as the GNML champs defeated the London Jr. Knights 3-0 Tuesday afternoon for their second straight 3-0 win at the Central Region Midget AAA Championships taking place this week in North Bay.

Stars goalie Ryan Dube was the game star as he turned aside 41 Knights shots. However, the humble netminder didn’t take much credit for the win.

“Everyone really kept all the shots to the outside so it was easy for me and if there was a rebound they just cleared it out it just seemed easy,” Dube said after the game.

His coach thought otherwise.

“Even tonight our penalty killing was very good and Ryan Dube was incredible he was our best penalty killer able to come up with some huge saves for us and we are extremely happy,” said head coach Michael Hall after the game.

After a scoreless first period the Stars struck 11:58 into the second period as Nic Lang floated a wrist shot toward the Knights net and Trevor McNutt scooped up the rebound and fired it home to give the Stars the first goal of the game on the powerplay.

Dube was sharp in the second period as the Knights fired 15 shots at him as the Stars carried the 1-0 lead into the third period.

The Knights appeared to have scored the equalizer less than two minutes into the third but the goal was disallowed by the referee.

Adam Pyymaki nearly put the Stars up by a pair on two occasions as he rang a slap shot off the cross bar and then moments later was robbed by a sprawling glove save by Knights goalie Jeff Fiddy that kept it 1-0 Stars.

The Stars would strike again as Brett Perlini scored on a nifty pass from Derrek Coccimiglio who picked up a rebound on a Dylan King shot from the point and shoveled it across to his teammate who made no mistake.

It was 2-0 with less than eight minutes left in regulation.

The Knights applied some more pressure but an over aggressive hit from behind by Chris McMurray cost his team a boarding penalty with only 2:44 left in regulation.

On the powerplay, Dan Vernelli would finish off the scoring as the North Stars won their second straight 3-0 victory; winning by the same result as they did Monday night in their opening game against the host North Bay Trappers.

Head coach Michael Hall is thrilled to see his team buying into his defense first philosophy.

“The kids have committed to defense first here and they continue to show it here to play two teams the caliber that we are here and shut them out; at the beginning of the year we probably took some offense away from some guys to make sure they knew their defensive responsibilities and right now it’s paying dividends,” he said.

The North Stars are back in action Wednesday afternoon as they play the 0-2 Kanata Blazers, who have been outscored 15-2 in their first two games of the tournament.