North Stars take 2-0 stanglehold in opening-round series

The pucks had to start finding the back of the net eventually.

A night after firing 56 shots at the English River Miners and only skating away with three goals – albeit enough to claim victory in their SIJHL playoff opener – on Wednesday night the Thunder Bay North Stars peppered the opposition net with 54 shots.

This time the Miners goalkeepers weren’t so fortunate.

Backed by a Bradley Belisle hat trick and a pair of goals apiece from Mathias Gardiman and Nicholas Nigro, the North Stars blasted the Miners 10-5 at Fort William Gardens on Wednesday night to take a commanding 2-0 series lead in their best-of-five play-in series.

Thunder  Bay can close out the series on Friday night in Ear Falls and secure a berth in the semifinals against top-ranked Fort Frances.
“It was great to get 10 goals on the board today. The boys played good today and their goalie had a bit of an off night tonight, so we took advantage of that,” said Nigro, who scored two of Thunder Bay’s five second-period tallies.

“We just kept putting the goals on.”

The difference was timing of their shots, the 19-year-old Thunder Bay native said.

“Coach told us that we were getting a lot of shots on net, but (the goalie) was seeing a lot of them,” Nigro said.

“So we had to switch it up. A lot of guys were going to the net and making Harney’s night a little bit worse than last night. So it was better.”

The key now is to keep the momentum and close the series out as quickly as possible, he added.

“We just need to go in their barn on Friday night and get another win and the series will be over.”

Game 2 was over in a hurry.

And it was discipline led to English River’s demise.

Plagued by penalties in the first, the Miners surrendered three power-play goals in a 64-second span as the North Stars took a 1-0 game and turned into a 4-0 run-away by the midway mark of the opening period.

After Hayden Hickey made a beeline to the net coming off the bench to open the scoring in the second and put the home side up 5-1, the Miners struck back with two in a 1:14 stretch, Taylor Bargar and Landen Matechuk, with his second of three on the night, replying for the visitors.

But the rest of the period belonged to the No. 4 North Stars, who scored four times in the final 11 minutes to take a 9-3 lead into the third.

Nigro scored twice, with singles going to Belisle and Kenny Turner, who grabbed a rebound, spun and fired the puck into the mesh, effectively ending Harney’s night.  P.D. Melgoza took over to start the final stanza.

Belisle finished off his hat trick at the 9:15 mark of the third and pushed the North Stars into double digits, English River unable to kill off a third straight power play.

The Miners added two more in the period, a sore sport for North Stars coach Jeremy Adduono.

“I didn’t like the two that we gave up, but in the end we won and we’re up 2-0.”

Star gazing: Adduono said captain Kris Kellaway, who missed more than a month of action with a concussion before returning in Game 1, will be re-evaluated after hitting his head on the ice.