North Stars sweep day one at Steel City

The Soo North Stars are off to a good start at this weekend's Steel City International Hockey Tournament being held locally.

The North Stars opened the tournament on Thursday with a pair of shutout wins to open the tournament with a 2-0 record in the Midget AAA Major Division.

The North Stars began with a 2-0 win over the Green Bay Gamblers before defeating the Geneva Cyclones 5-0 later in the day at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

Against the Gamblers, the North Stars ran into a solid team and some quality goaltending from Green Bay goaltender Nick Graves, who came up big when needed to keep the game close.

Midway through the second period, the North Stars got themselves on the board when Adam Pyymaki beat Graves to open the scoring. Derrek Coccimiglio sealed the win when he broke in on a two-on-one with Brad DiCandia and took a feed from the latter, converting it into a 2-0 lead.

Coccimiglio had a chance to give the North Stars a 3-0 lead late in the game, but was stopped on a breakaway by Graves.

After a short rest between games, the North Stars took the ice later on Thursday evening and proceeded to score a 5-0 over Geneva.

After struggling through the first period, the North Stars power play got things going offensively for the locals. Jacob Chiblow opened the scoring 1:31 into the second period with a power play marker.

Just short of three minutes later, Tyler Luikkonen increased the lead to a pair of goals with a shorthanded goal at 4:24. Mike Rivard gave the North Stars a 3-0 lead when he scored on a two-man advantage with five minutes remaining in the period.

In the third period, a power play goal from Pyymaki and an even strength goal from Brett Perlini rounded out the scoring to put the North Stars into a favourable position heading into day two of action on Friday.

"I didn't think we had a very good first period," Hall said of the second game. "I thought the first period was probably the worst period we've played in probably two months. In the second period we started to get some chances on the power play.

"The power play is mainly to their credit," Hall continued. "We go over the power play and tell them the things we'd like them to try but once they're out there it's their discretion to what they're going to do. They ran some pretty nice plays."

The two wins by shutout become even more important as the first tiebreaker should two teams finish tied in the standings is goal differential.

"Like we said to the kids, it's going to be important," Hall said. "The first matchup according to the rules is not head-to-head, it's goals for and against, which is unusual.

"Obviously we're really excited about our defensive play," Hall continued. "I thought that, with the exception of the first period of tonight's game, we moved the puck pretty well. There wasn't too many times where we left odd-man rushes."

The games also marked the return of defenceman Nic Lang, who suffered a groin injury on Oct. 16 in a road game against the North Bay Trappers.

"We were pretty excited about that," Hall said of getting Lang back into the lineup. "We said to Nic that if it's hurting, don't play hero. Nic's a great leader. He's the type of kid that even though he was injured, he made every trip, every tournament, he sat in the stands and took stats.

"He told me a funny quote (Wednesday). When I told them they have to go home and go to bed at a decent hour, he told me he was going right home and right to bed because this was Christmas for him. He couldn't wait to start playing again."

The North Stars only see action once on Friday as they face the Motor City Chiefs at 4:30 p.m. at the John Rhodes Community Centre. They will wrap up the round robin portion of the tournament on Saturday against the Capital Centre Pride at 4:30 p.m., also at the John Rhodes.

*** NORTH STAR HEROES OFF THE ICE:

The North Stars also had an interesting side note heading into the second game. Goaltender Ryan Dube, his father Marc, and defenceman Mark Hoffman were among a number of individuals who assisted an injured woman in the accident on Huron street earlier on Thursday.

The three were on their way to drop Dube's father off at work when they came upon the accident and the woman who was trapped underneath her vehicle. The three assisted in lifting the side of the vehicle, and getting it back on its wheels prior to police and paramedics arriving on the scene.

*** BANTAM HOUNDS:

The Soo Bantam Greyhounds are off to a 2-0 start after a pair of wins on opening day in the Bantam AAA Minor division.

Nick Romano and David Quesnele scored in a 2-1 win over the Sudbury Wolves before the squad took a 5-4 decision over Waterloo Wolves. Quesnele, Romano, Brett Findlay, Brain Nanne and Tyler Pearse provided the offense against Waterloo.

On Friday, the Greyhounds play their lone game on the day at noon against the Pittsburgh Jr. Penguins at the McMeeken Centre. On Saturday, the Hounds face the Motor City Chiefs at 5:30 p.m. at the Rankin Arena.

*** PINO'S TITANS:

The Pino's Titans picked up a tie to go with a loss on Thursday in the Bantam AAA Minor Division. The team normally plays in the Sault Major Hockey Association's Bantam AA division.

Paul Muio and Michael Alexander scored in a 4-2 loss to Traverse City Pepsi before playing to a 2-2 draw with the Marquette American Legion.

On Friday, Pino's takes on West Ferris at 9 p.m. at the Rhodes. On Saturday, Pino's plays the Northern Ice Cats at 2:30 p.m. at the Rankin.

CURRENTLY WRITING.