Stars win opener at Dudley Hewitt Cup

Dan Usiski scored 2:19 into overtime, giving the Fort William North Stars a 3-2 win over the host Soo Thunderbirds as the Dudley Hewitt Cup got under way in Sault Ste. Marie on Tuesday night.

Kyle Breukelman opened the scoring 2:38 into the contest, and the Superior International Junior Hockey League champion North Stars held a 1-0 lead for 34 minutes, when Colin Barnuaskas evened the score, beating Fort William goalie Guillaume Piche on the power play with time running out in the second.

Dan Vernelli put the T-Birds, who failed to score at last year’s Dudley Hewitt Cup, up 2-1 with 6:07 to go in regulation, but Randall Hanlan responded 37 seconds later to knot the score and send the game to overtime.

“We were awful,” North Stars coach Todd Howarth told SooToday.com. “We showed our two weeks off from our league championship. We were behind the eight-ball all night. I commend the Soo. They played really good and kept it close all night. We had chances in the first to bury them, but we let them off the hook.”

The Thunderbirds will take on Oakville, the OHA champion, on Wednesday. The Blades also won their opener at the DHC, blanking the Abitibi Eskimos 6-0 in a matinee affair.
The North Stars will go for their second win of the four-team tournament on Wednesday afternoon against Abitibi.

The winner of the provincial Junior A championship will represent Ontario at the Royal Bank Cup in Dauphin, Man. starting May 1.