North Stars take early series lead

The Soo North Stars opened their quest for a Great North Midget League playoff championship over the weekend with a first round matchup against the Valley East Cobras.

The North Stars opened the best-of-five series with the Cobras by scoring a pair of victories and taking a quick 2-0 series lead. After opening the series with a narrow 3-0 victory on Saturday, the North Stars scored a 7-3 victory on Sunday.

Saturday night saw the North Stars receive a perfect performance from goaltender Thomas Gravelines, who picked up the shutout, as well as goals in each period to take the victory.

Brett Perlini opened the scoring with a power play marker midway through the first period before a second period goal by Mike Rivard increased the lead at 12:17 of the second period. Brad DiCandia sealed the victory in the third period with a goal at 7:43. Both Rivard and DiCandia had an assist each while Mark Hoffman added a pair of assists in the win.

On Sunday afternoon, a first period goal by Derrek Coccimiglio got the ball rolling for the North Stars. When all was said and done, Trevor McNutt and Brad DiCandia had a pair of goals each while the other singles went to Dan Vernelli and Dean Howard.

Scott Faulkner had a pair of goals for Valley East, who made a small comeback in the third period with a pair of goals just under two minutes apart.

"I didn't think our effort was that bad this weekend," said North Stars coach Mike Hall. "At times it was poor decision making more than anything else. We had open guys that weren't getting the puck. In the second period you start making good choices and all of a sudden you score. We did what we had to do, which was take two here."

The North Stars came out of the weekend without any injury trouble, although defenceman Nic Lang sat out the third period of Sunday's game. The injury was not serious and the veteran isn't expected to miss any time.

Hall went on to say that he was not worried about the game getting out of hand on Sunday after the North Stars opened things up as the Cobras were short on players.

"Hopefully we'll go down there and steal one and be done with the series and get some rest," Hall continued. "Our kids have to be smart about this. In the next game we play, if they get down three or four goals, their season's over. We just have to be smart about it and play smart hockey."

Game three of the series will be on Friday night in Sudbury. Game four, if necessary is set for Saturday night while game five, if needed, will be at the John Rhodes Arena on Mar. 1st.