North Stars sweep Flyers

For fans that got to see the Soo North Stars and Kapuskasing Flyers do battle this weekend in both games, they managed to see two different North Stars teams.

On Saturday, fans saw a North Stars team playing with some spark and showing why they are the Great North Midget League's top team. You wouldn't know they were the league's top entry following Sunday's game though as they found themselves struggling against the last-place Flyers.

Sunday afternoon saw the North Stars squeeze out a 3-1 victory over the Flyers despite a less-than-stellar effort.

"This afternoon, we had a lot of 'I' guys out there," said North Stars coach Mike Hall. "We had a lot of guys staying out for a minute or 45 second shifts. That's not the team concept, that's a lot of 'I' stuff. Until we get away from that we're not going to be successful, but its four points on a weekend so I guess you take it and run.

"The biggest thing is when you play a weaker team guys think they should get lots of points," Hall continued. "It's hard when you blow a team out and then come back the next day, but we didn't put out near the effort that's necessary to compete at this level."

Derrek Coccimiglio opened the scoring for the north Stars as he converted a chance at 14:03 of the first period. Tyler Luikkonen gave the North Stars a 2-0 lead at 4:57 of the second period.

Alain Della-Pieta pulled Kapuskasing to within one goal when he beat North Stars goaltender Ryan Dube, who would factor into the Soo Thunderbirds 6-4 victory over the Manitoulin Islanders later in the day, at 10:26 of the second period but Trevor McNutt sealed the sweep by beating Flyers goaltender Ryley Nadon at 15:04.

"I'm concerned about the way we're playing," Hall said. "We played a good game on Saturday and then on Sunday, we did the same thing last weekend. We're very inconsistent. We blow a team out 9-1 and then at one point (Sunday) it was 2-1. We've got some things to work on, that's for sure."

Despite his criticism of his own team's play, Hall did credit the Flyers for coming back with a better effort after the lopsided loss on Saturday.

"Give Kapuskasing credit," Hall said. "We handed it to them 9-1 and they came back and for the better part of that game they outworked us. That's been our strong suit all year is hard work. We didn't work hard today but we got the result."

On Saturday night, the North Stars used a four goal first period to cruise to a 9-1 victory.

Brett Perlini with three goals, Adam Pyymaki, Coccimiglio, McNutt, Dan Vernelli, Dean Howard and Dylan King all had goals in Saturday night's win. Coccimiglio also added a pair of assists in the win.

Next up for the North Stars is a pair of home games on Dec. 17 and 18 when they host the New Liskeard Cubs at the John Rhodes Community Centre.