NIPIGON – Friday night at the Nipigon Community Centre the Thunder Bay Junior Stars and the Nipigon Elks faced each other in the last game of the regular season. These two teams always play clean hockey when they get together.
The first period saw only one goal scored and it came from Joey Szura of the Junior Stars. Nipigon out shot the Stars 9-7.
The visiting Stars would open the second period with Lino Dixon scoring at the 51 second mark and go up 2-0. The Elks Brandon Polhill would score to bring the hometown Elks within one at 2-1. At the 17:35 the Elks Steven St.Jean was tripped while on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. When Steven got down in front of Tyler Bolen in the Stars net, he fanned on his shot and didn’t score. Before the penalty shot was taken by Steven St.Jean, the Stars was assessed a cross checking major and a game misconduct by referee Dan LeBel. The second period would end with the Stars up 2-1. The Elks would again out shoot the Stars by a margin of 19-13.
With only 2:55 gone in the third period George Ossachuk would pull the Elks even at 2-2. The Stars Joey Szura would score his second of the game and put the visitors up 3-2. The Elks captain Steven St. Jean scored to tie the game at 3-3. The Stars Chris Bourdons and Lino Dixon scored his second to put the Stars up 5-3 and that would be the final score.
These same two teams will face each other in the first round of the playoffs Sunday night at the Nipigon Community Centre at 7:30pm. The Stars defeated the Elks in the first round last year. So the Elks will be looking for revenge.
Here is the schedule for the first round between the Stars and the Elks.
Sunday March 6th 7:30pm Junior Stars vs Nipigon Elks @ Nipigon Arena
Friday March 11th 7:30pm Junior Stars vs Nipigon Elks @ Nipigon Arena
Saturday March 12 7pm Nipigon Elks vs Junior Stars @ Tournament Centre
Tuesday March 15th 8pm Nipigon Elks vs Junior Stars @ Tournament Centre
Friday March 18th 7:30pm Junior Stars vs Nipigon Elks @ Nipigon Arena