For the second straight week, the Thunder Bay North Stars avenged a Friday loss with a Saturday night victory.
The North Stars picked up a 4-1 win over the English River Miners in Superior International Junior Hockey League action at the Fort William Gardens.
Daniel Delpaggio had a goal and an assist in the winning effort and netminder Eric Mann stopped all but one of the 25 shots he faced to pick up his 10th win of the campaign.
Thunder Bay (17-5-0-1) move to within a single point of the second-place Minnesota Iron Rangers and also have three games in hand.
After a scoreless first period, Brett Wolframe opened the scoring for the North Stars with an even strength goal.
Cary Brown added to the lead just less than three minutes into the final frame before English River made it a 2-1 game with Ben Smaha picking up the lone tally for the Miners two minutes later.
That was as close as the visitors would get, as Delpaggio found the back of the net on the powerplay to restore the two goal edge and Kenny Turner capped off the scoring with a goal in the final minute with an empty netter.
P.D. Melgoza was saddled with the loss despite stopping 34 shots as Thunder Bay outshot the Miners by a 37-25 margin.
Next up for Thunder Bay is a road matchup against the league-leading Fort Frances Lakers on Monday evening.
