Soo North Stars blast Trappers

Trappers forward Darcy Vaillancourt races for the loose puck behind the Soo North Stars net in the first period. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The Sault Ste. Marie North Stars got back to back wake up calls and that helped lead the defending Great North Midget League champions to a 10-2 victory over the North Bay Trappers Sunday afternoon at West Ferris arena.

The unbeaten North Stars first wake up call came Saturday night when the Trappers blanked the Stars 3-0 in front of a crowd sprinkled with OHL scouts. Their second call came when coach Mike Hall called a very early morning meeting Sunday.

"We tell our kids it doesn't take any talent to work hard, we weren't working hard on Saturday night and we got what we deserved we got out played, we got out hustled we got beat to loose pucks. Today we had a 5 a.m. meeting and it seems to have woke a few kids up,” Hall said.

“I thought today we skated a lot better and our best players were our best players.”

But it was the Trappers who did get on the scoreboard first in this game when Darcy Vaillancourt, who had two points in Saturday’s game, scored on the power play in the first to make it 1-0. That would be the last lead the Trappers would have on this weekend.

After Dean Howard evened things up midway through the first and with less than three minutes left in the period Brett Perlini scored a power play goal past a sprawling Marc Veilleux to make it 2-1 after one.

In the middle frame the North Stars opened the scoring flood gates in a big way, scoring five times including three on the power play. Derek Coccimiglio scored twice and Dean Howard, Dan Vernelli and Tyler Liukkonen had singles in a back breaking period for the Trappers.

The turning point in that period occurred when the Trappers failed to cash in on a 5 on 3 power play because soon after the second penalty expired the Stars created a turnover and Derek Coccimiglio beat a struggling Marc Veilleux upstairs to give the Soo a commanding 4-1 lead.

Trappers head coach Larry Keenan says his club took way too many undisciplined penalties in the game and they can’t afford any type of let down against team’s of the Soo’s caliber.

“After the first period we stopped competing a little bit and we self-destructed in the second period,” Keenan said after the game.

Marc Senecal scored early in the third to make it 7-2, but Derek Coccimiglio, Brett Perlini and Dean Howard rounded out the scoring for the North Stars.