North Stars wait for semi-final opponent

The Soo North Stars will have to wait until Wednesday to find out who the opponent will be for their Great North Midget League semi-final playoff series.

The GNML regular season champion North Stars know they will open the first two games of the best-of-five series at home but will need to wait until the New Liskeard Cubs and Rayside Balfour Jr. Sabrecats play game five in their respective series on Wednesday.

The North Stars advanced into the second round of play after bouncing the Valley East Consbec Cobras in three straight games to win their quarterfinal series. The locals completed the sweep with a 5-0 victory in Valley East on Friday.

Should the seventh-seeded Sabrecats win, they will travel to the Sault to open against the North Stars on Saturday. If the second-seeded Cubs emerge victorious, the North Stars will face fifth-seeded Kirkland Lake, who knocked off the fourth place Timmins Majors on Sunday night.

In Friday’s series clinching victory over the Cobras, Michael Maulucci recorded his second consecutive playoff shutout in two starts. Matt Caria, Matt D’Agostini, Michael Sharp, Paul Dupont and Adam Kauppi, who led the offense with five points in the series, provided the North Stars scoring.

In other playoff action from the weekend, New Liskeard forced a seventh game in that series with a 5-4 win in overtime on Saturday to tie the series at 2-2. Rayside took a 2-1 lead with a 4-2 win on Friday.

Third-seeded Kapuskasing swept the Sudbury Lockerby Confectionery Nickel Capitals with a 4-3 win in Sudbury on Saturday.

After taking home ice away from Timmins with a victory in game one, Kirkland Lake returned home to beat the Majors 4-1 on Thursday and 6-5 on Sunday.