Stars join Hawks in final

Brandon Wolframe scored once and set-up the game-winner to help the Jr. B Stars defeat the Nipigon Elks 5-2 Tuesday in game four of their Thunder Bay Jr. B/Juvenile/AAA Hockey League semi-final series played at  the Tournament Centre.

With the victory the Stars win the best-of-five series 3-1 and move on to meet the Northern Hawks in the final.

Nipigon would open the scoring with the only tally of the opening period as Brett Almgren beat Tyler Bolen at 17:13 of the first.

Wolframe’s second of the postseason tied it at 8:44 of the middle stanza, as he converted on a power play opportunity, while Jordan Miller gave the Stars the lead just 27 seconds after that.

Steven St. Jean would capitalize during an Elks’ man advantage later in the period to knot the score at 2-2 after 40 minutes.

The eventual game-winner came five minutes into the third period as Wolframe fed Joe Szura, who made no mistake, in beating Nipigon netminder Thomas Gratz.

Patrick Mielke would add a power play marker just over a minute later while Lino Dixon iced it in the final minute to round out the scoring.

Shots on goal favoured the Elks by a 38-29 margin with Bolen registering the win and Gratz being saddled with the loss.

The two sides will now await the finalization of the schedule to commence the league championship series.

The winner will then advance to the Keystone Cup Western Canadian Jr. B Hockey Championship April 14-17 in Sherwood Park, Alta.