North Stars remain unbeaten after two contests

Soo North Stars coach Mike Hall was looking for an improved effort from his team on Friday morning against the New Liskeard Cubs.

Less than 24 hours after opening the 2004 Steel City International Hockey Tournament with a 5-2 win over the Michigan Jaguars, a victory that Hall wasn't overly pleased with, the North Stars improved to 2-0 with a 3-1 win over their rivals from the Great North Midget League at the John Rhodes Community Centre in AAA Major Midget division play.

After a scoreless first period, the North Stars opened the scoring early on in the second period when Frank D'Addetta scored a power play goal at 2:01.

The goal came when New Liskeard goaltender Philip Hawken lost his catching glove behind the net. The North Stars moved the puck around to D'Addetta, who took a point shot that went in on the glove side as Hawken had to play without his glove and no stoppage in play.

Just over a minute later the North Stars used another power play to make the score 2-0 as Kyle Rodgers scored on a cross-ice feed from Paul Dupont.

In the third period, New Liskeard used an early power play to cut the Soo lead to one goal as Alain Duguay beat North Star goaltender Michael Maulucci to make the score 2-1 at 2:29.

The goal wasn't enough though as Matt Caria capped the scoring at 8:23 to give the North Stars a 3-1 win.

Hall was happy that his team managed to improve their effort over Friday night's game although he said his team will not have it easy over the rest of the tournament with games against the San Jose Jr. Sharks tonight at 6:30 p.m. and a game against the Green Bay Jr. Gamblers tomorrow at 11:30 a.m., both at the Rhodes.

"The biggest thing I was worried about was work ethic and we got some of that back tonight," Hall said. "We didn't work hard enough last night (against Michigan). Today we had a lot more jump. It was a pretty good effort."