Stars fall in OT to Eskimos

The Fort William North Stars were 26 seconds from going 2-0 at the Dudley Hewitt Cup on Wednesday afternoon, but instead had to settle for a 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the Abitibi Eskimos.

Matt St. Jacques erased a 3-2 North Stars lead in the final minute of regulation and Marc-Alain Bergeron tapped home his second of the night 64 seconds into overtime to give the Eskimos (1-1-0) their first win of the four-team provincial junior A hockey championship in Sault Ste. Marie.

The North Stars and Eskimos traded goals in the first and second, with Begin opening the scoring on the power play with six minutes to go in the first.

Ryan Magill returned the favour in the second, at the 15:40 mark, but Abitibi responded early in the third, with Michel Ouellette beating Guillaume Piche to put the Eskimos up 2-1.
Travis Savard and Magill scored 22 seconds apart early in the third to give Fort William its first lead of the afternoon, but they weren’t able to hold it.

The North Stars (1-0-1) will play the Oakville Blades on Thursday afternoon in their final round robin match.

At present they are in a three-way tie for top spot, as teams do not get a point for taking the game to OT. Oakville and the host Soo Thunderbirds play Wednesday night. The top three teams advance to the playoffs. The first-place team gets a bye, while the second and third-place finishers will play a semifinal match for the other spot in the tournament final.