THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay North Stars aren’t watching the standings all that closely.
Sure, Tuesday’s 5-0 win over the visiting Wisconsin Lumberjacks allowed them to jump past the Sioux Lookout Bombers into a tie for first place in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
But the Bombers have three games in hand and the first-place Kam River Fighting Walleye have four.
They also opened a five-point gap over the fourth-place Dryden Ice Dogs.
None of that matters in the moment to North Stars coach Rob DeGagne. He’s happier that his team played a pretty complete game.
The Stars fired 64 shots at Wisconsin goaltender William Forrester, who was good on all but five of them.
They only allowed 24 shots against and Ben Laurette stopped them all.
For the most part, they stayed out of the box, allowing only two power plays against and got the job done.
That’s just what DeGagne was looking for, with only a couple of weeks to go before the playoffs begin.
“I thought it was a pretty good, clean game. When you get 64 shots and just 24 against, you should win,” he said. “We scored when we needed to … I thought the guys played well. They skated, they moved the puck well, our defence played well, I thought tonight. The goaltender, Ben, played well in there. We’re going into the playoffs maybe on the right foot.”
DeGagne said the goal down the stretch is to win the games they’re supposed to win, against the teams beneath them in the standings and be playoff ready for the final two games against Dryden.
“Our message is we’ve just got to get better every game,” DeGagne said. “We’ve got to get ready for the playoffs. Our special teams have to get better, we have to be more responsible defensively. So I was more happy with giving no goals up tonight probably than anything else.”
E.J. Paddington scored twice for the North Stars, upping his season total to 29, one behind Sioux Lookout’s Owen Riffel for the league lead.
He said the goal over the next couple of weeks is simple.
“We want to win out,” said Paddington, who turns 19 in three weeks time.
“With playoff time coming around here, we want to play simple, play the way we’re supposed to play and the wins will come.”
The North Stars got the only goal they’d need midway through the first, Connor Larrett potting his seventh of the season.
Matthew Beazley scored his first goal in 18 SIJHL games with 1:16 to go in the opening period. Thunder Bay doubled its lead with a pair of goals in the second. Alex Remenda took a couple of stabs at the puck before lifting a backhand past Forrester five minutes in, and Paddington found the back of the net from a sharp angle deep in enemy territory at the 10:47 mark. He added his second of the night, taking the puck in the slot, making one move and depositing it over the goal line.
Wisconsin’s best chance to score came in the third, when defenceman William McDonnel’s shot hit the post, bouncing harmlessly out of harm’s way.
Thunder Bay (29-11-5) travels to Fort Frances on Friday and is back at Fort William Gardens on Sunday for a matinee against the Lakers. Wisconsin (14-21-5) has a pair in Dryden on the weekend.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Larrett 7 (Beazley, Helmeczi) 9:48. 2. Thunder Bay, Beazley 1 (Weeks, Remenda) 18:44. Penalties: Voisey TB (interference) 6:36,
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Thunder Bay, Remenda 10 (Weeks, Jordan) 4:54. 4. Thunder Bay, Paddington 28 (Skillestad) 10:47. Penalties: Helmeczi TB (cross checking), Burtkholer WIS (cross checking), Dial TB (cross checking) 7:12.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 5. Thunder Bay, Paddington 29 (Voisey) 1:41. Penalties: None.
SOG – Wisconsin 6-6-12-24, Thunder Bay 18-26-20-64; Power plays (goals-chances) – Wisconsin (0-2), Thunder Bay (0-0); Goaltenders – Wisconsin: William Forrester, Thunder Bay: Ben Laurette; A: 332.
