Another North Stars series sweep

The Soo North Stars continue to roll as the Great North Midget League playoffs are less than two weeks away.

Completing their home portion of the regular season, the North Stars spanked the Rayside Balfour Jr. Sabrecats 12-2 on Saturday night before scoring blanking the Valley East Cobras 5-0 on Sunday afternoon at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

On Sunday, the North Stars received scoring from five different players while Travis O'Brien recorded the shutout in goal.

Paul Dupont and Tyler Gendron led the way with a goal and two assists while Mike Quesnele added a goal and an assist. Trevor McNutt and Mark Hoffman also scored.

On Saturday, Derrick Coccimiglio and Matt Conway had four point nights with a goal and three assists each. Zac McNally, Gendron and McNutt scored two goals and added an assist each while Dupont and Jason Bird each scored once and setup two others. Jake McClelland had a goal and an assist and Nic Lang scored another.

Ryan Dube picked up the win in goal.

The North Stars, winners of 24 straight games, conclude the regular season next weekend with a pair of games in Kapuskasing.

The locals open the GNML quarterfinals with games one and two on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 20 at 1 p.m. at the Rhodes.

With two regular season games remaining the North Stars hold a 31-1-1-1 record for 64 points and are chasing several league records.

With a pair of victories to close the season, the North Stars would tally 33 wins to eclipse the old record of 32 wins in a season held by last year's North Stars, the 1992-93 Soo Legion squad and the 1996-97 New Liskeard Cubs.

The North Stars would also need three points to beat the record of 66 points in a season, again set by last year's edition of the North Stars. With six more wins, the North Stars would produce 67 points.

Another meaningful record for the North Stars is the mark for fewest goals allowed in a season. Last year, the North Stars allowed 87 goals to beat the 92-93 Legion mark of 96 goals. Barring a total collapse, the North Stars will destroy their own record as the team has allowed a minuscule 63 goals in 34 games.

Should the team hang on to set the defensive record, the goaltending duo of O'Brien and Dube would set the mark for the best combined goals against average in a season. O'Brien teamed with Michael Maulucci last season to set the record with a 2.42 GAA.

On an individual level, O'Brien has an excellent shot of beating Willie Ciccone's record for best GAA in a season. Ciccone set the mark at 1.82 with the 2000-01 Timmins Majors.

In 18 games, O'Brien has posted a 1.61 GAA with five shutouts while Dube is also close to the record standard with a 2.11 GAA to go with two shutouts in 16 appearances.

Gendron, with 30 goals and 44 assists for 74 points, is on pace to secure the league scoring title as the sniper holds a 10 point lead over Dupont, who has 28 goals and 36 assists for 64 points.