Waxers slide by North Stars

It was role reversal night at Memorial Gardens in North Bay.

Throughout the first four games the Sault Ste. Marie North Stars were shutting down the competition with their tough defence which resulted in only three goals against in the first four games of the tournament.

On this night it was the Markham Waxers who contained the North Stars offence and they were the ones able to protect the lead en route to a 4-1 victory at the Central Region Midget AAA Championship being held in North Bay this week.

Kyle Speers gave Markham the lead just over five minutes into the game cashing in on a Waxer powerplay. It was the first time the North Stars had fallen behind in the tournament.

In the second period the Waxers added to their lead on a 2 on 1 as Scott Hunter made no mistake beating Thomas Gravelines less than two minutes into the period.

The North Stars though certainly had their chances in the middle frame as the Waxers ran into penalty trouble and opened the door for a comeback. The Stars had a 5 on 3 powerplay for close to a minute and a half but Markham goalie Chris Azzano shut the door.

Like many games before this the penalty kill seemed to rally the Waxers. On a powerplay of their own forward Kyle Speers netted his second of the game on a rebound giving the Markham club a huge 3-0 lead heading into the second intermission.

The North Stars finally broke Chris Azzano’s shutout with less than four minutes left on the clock as Trevor McNutt was credited with a goal that went off a Waxers skate and into the net making it 3-1.

The Stars poured on the pressure in the final two minutes but couldn’t beat Azzano again.

Cody Hodgson finished off the scoring with an empty netter from outside the blueline to help his team improve to a perfect 5-0 record in round robin play.

North Stars defenceman Dylan King, who’s been solid on the blueline all week for the Stars was named the player of the game for the Sault.

King said not cashing in when the Waxers sent 11 players to the penalty box in the second period was the key.

“We couldn’t get the shots through today trying to get it to the point and trying to get it to the net, we just couldn’t get them to the net today,” said the Thessalon native.

Head coach Michael Hall agreed.

“We had chances, no question,” said Hall. “We had a 5 on 3 and we didn’t score and in our first three games our powerplay carried us tonight it wasn’t there.”

For the Waxers it was a big victory as they clinch first place in the event and will play the London Jr. Knights in their semi-final on Saturday.

“Everybody contributed this evening, we had to kill a lot of penalties and everyone played well,” said Waxers head coach Joe Cornacchia

“Our goaltending was outstanding our defence kept it simple and our game plan was very simple get it out and make sure the Soo forwards were slowed down coming to our goal.”

While the loss is disappointing the North Stars remain upbeat.

“We are not upset at all,” said Hall who admits he’ll likely rest a few players in a meaningless round robin game on Friday.

“We said to these kids before we came here we need to just advance and that’s the big thing, it doesn’t matter if you’re first, second, third you have got to beat everybody to win this thing so the kids did what they had to do this morning they won the game we’re advancing so great part now is we even know who we are playing, we play North York tomorrow and play North York in the opening round.”

The North Stars finish off the round robin portion of the event at 1 p.m. at North Bay Memorial Gardens.