Great North face-off finals
North Bay Major Trappers and Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves will begin their best-of-five, Great North Midget Hockey League championship series on Saturday night in the Gateway City.
Saturday’s series opener is slated for 7:30 p.m. at North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The Major Trappers finished atop the regular season standings with a perfect record of 36-0-0. After a first-round playoff bye, North Bay then swept the fourth-ranked Soo Major Thunderbirds three games to none in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the third-seeded Nickel Capital Wolves edged sixth-ranked Timmins Majors two games to one in the first round before ousting second-place Kapuskasing Flyers three games to one in the second set of the playoffs.
Major Trappers head coach Guy Blanchard is expecting a tough series from the bolstered Nickel Capital Wolves, who had a record of 15-18-3 during the regular season but have a 5-2 mark through two playoff rounds.
“They have added some good affiliate players (from the Sudbury Minor Wolves) and they gave us a run for our money a few times during the (regular) season,” Blanchard said of the Nickel Capital Wolves.
“Our guys better be up for the challenge,” Blanchard added. “We need to stay focused and we need to win three games.”
PHOTO: Guy Blanchard is the veteran bench boss of the North Bay Trappers. (Postmedia file photo.)