When the season started, it was widely accepted by those who follow the Soo North Stars that the team was due for a let down after an outstanding 2003-04 campaign.
Last season, the North Stars cruised to the Great North Midget League regular season and playoff championship in record setting fashion before bowing out at the regional playdowns.
Not to be outdone, this year's version of the North Stars rewrote, and in some cases demolished, their own records from the year before and have proven to be the most dominate team to ever suit up in the GNML.
While not as talented offensively as the year before, the North Stars still feature a balanced scoring attack but have set new standards when it comes to defensive play by allowing less than two goals a game.
On Saturday night in North Bay, the North Stars secured back-to-back league championships by defeating the North Bay Trappers 5-2 and sweeping the best-of-five final 3-0.
After dropping their opening game of the playoffs to Sudbury in the quarterfinals, the North Stars reeled off nine straight wins, including a semi-final sweep of Timmins, to capture the title.
The locals will now focus on capturing the regional championship, being held Mar. 28-Apr. 3 in North York, that eluded them last season and earn their second trip in three years to the national championships.
The following is a complete wrap-up of the championship clinching victory on Saturday night courtesy of Chris Dawson of BayToday.ca, a sister site of SooToday.com:
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Trappers swept by Soo
By Chris Dawson BayToday.ca Saturday, March 19, 2005
The Sault Ste. Marie North Stars showed why they are the top rated Midget team in the country.
The Stars scored 4 unanswered second period goals en route to a 5-2 victory and a sweep of the Great North Midget League final, winning the best of five affair in three straight at West Ferris arena Saturday night.
The North Stars were pumped to start the contest, knowing the championship trophy was in the North Bay arena.
At the 1:42 mark Jake Reid banged home a loose puck in front of Andre Laperriere to give the North Stars the early lead. However, the Trappers bounced right back 16 seconds later as Kyle Willard scored to even things up at 1-1.
The Trappers got their second, and last lead of this game at the midway point of the period as Joel Fortin connected on a power play goal to put the Trappers ahead 2-1.
The North Stars missed a lot of chances in the first period, but made up for that in the middle frame. Matt Conway's shot beat a screened Andre Laperriere to make it 2-2 about eight minutes into the second.
But the 13th minute of the second was pretty much where the Trappers season ended, as the North Stars scored twice within 25 seconds, Jake Reid and Zac McNally banged home rebounds and the North Stars were up 4-2 silencing the capacity crowd at West Ferris arena.
The North Stars got another huge insurance marker with 10 seconds remaining in the period as Paul Dupont scored to give the Soo club a comfortable three goal lead heading into the final period.
The third period the Stars did a great job protecting the lead and easily held on for the 5-2 win.
For the Trappers it was an end to a very successful season but the North Bay club will want to forget the second period of game three.
"The second period did us in, we just didn't have enough," said Trappers head coach Larry Keenan, who's already short bench was even shorter in the middle frame because of two misconduct penalties.
"They keep coming at you and when you make a mistake you're in trouble," said Keenan, who felt his team's best game of the series was the 6-1 loss in game two.
For the North Stars, the key to the second period was staying out of the penalty box.
"Anytime we got any flow going we took some dumb penalties and took the flow away so in the second period we stayed away from the dumb stuff and we were able to pot a couple," said North Stars head coach Mike Hall.
The North Stars move on to the All-Ontario's taking place in North York and the Trappers coach believes the rest of the province will have their hands full trying to take the shine out of these Stars.
"Soo's got a better club and they will represent our league very well, it would not surprise me at all to see them win the All-Ontario," said Keenan.
For the North Stars, Saturday night's win caps off back to back Great North Midget league championships.
"This one's maybe a little bit nicer because not too many people expected us to win, there weren't too many people that gave these kids a chance but I guess they forgot to tell these kids that," said Hall.
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PHOTO: North Stars pose with the league championship trophy following Saturday's win. A larger version can be viewed by clicking the photo gallery link at the bottom of this story. (Photo courtesy of Chris Dawson)
*** GNML FINAL:
1. NORTH STARS VS. 5. NORTH BAY
(North Stars win series 3-0)
Game 1 - Fri. Mar. 11 - Soo 6 North Bay 1 Game 2 - Sat. Mar. 12 - Soo 6 North Bay 1 Game 3 - Sat. Mar. 19 - Soo 5 North Bay 2
*** GNML SEMI-FINALS:
1. NORTH STARS VS. 8. TIMMINS:
(North Stars win series 3-0)
Game 1 - Tue. Mar. 1 - Soo 6 Timmins 1 Game 2 - Wed. Mar. 2 - Soo 10 Timmins 0 Game 3 - Sun. Mar. 6 - Soo 10 Timmins 0
5. NORTH BAY VS. 6. KIRKLAND LAKE:
(North Bay wins series 3-1)
Game 1 - Fri. Mar. 4 - North Bay 3 Kirkland Lake 2 Game 2 - Sat. Mar. 5 - North Bay 3 Kirkland Lake 0 Game 3 - Mon. Mar. 7 - Kirkland Lake 2 North Bay 1 (OT) Game 4 - Tue. Mar. 8 - North Bay 3 Kirkland Lake 2 (OT)
*** GNML QUARTERFINALS:
1. NORTH STARS VS. 8. SUDBURY:
(North Stars win series 3-1)
Game 1 - Sat. Feb. 19 - Sudbury 3 Soo 2 Game 2 - Sun. Feb. 20 - Soo 7 Sudbury 1 Game 3 - Wed. Feb. 23 - Soo 7 Sudbury 3 Game 4 - Thurs. Feb. 24 - Soo 10 Sudbury 1
2. NEW LISKEARD vs. 7. TIMMINS
(Timmins wins series 3-1)
Game 1 - Fri. Feb. 18 - Timmins 2 New Liskeard 1 Game 2 - Sun. Feb. 20 - New Liskeard 4 Timmins 2 Game 3 - Fri. Feb. 25 - Timmins 4 New Liskeard 2 Game 4 - Sun. Feb. 27 - Timmins 5 New Liskeard 1
3. KAPUSKASING vs. 6. KIRKLAND LAKE
(Kirkland Lake win series 3-2)
Game 1 - Sat. Feb. 19 - Kirkland Lake 4 Kapuskasing 3 Game 2 - Sun. Feb. 20 - Kapuskasing 3 Kirkland Lake 3 Game 3 - Sat. Feb. 26 - Kapuskasing 2 Kirkland Lake 1 Game 4 - Sun. Feb. 27 - Kirkland Lake 6 Kapuskasing 3 Game 5 - Sat. Mar. 5 - Kirkland Lake 3 Kapuskasing 0
4. VALLEY EAST vs. 5. NORTH BAY
(North Bay wins series 3-0)
Game 1 - Fri. Feb. 18 - North Bay 5 Valley East 4 (OT) Game 2 - Sat. Feb. 19 - North Bay 5 Valley East 3 Game 3 - Sat. Feb. 26 - North Bay 2 Valley East 1
***