Great North stats, seeds
Second season — aka the playoffs — in the Great North Midget Hockey League is set to start with three first-round series and an opening-week bye.
North Bay Trappers have the first-round pass that was earned by finishing atop the seven-team loop with 61 points from a record of 30-5-1.
Meanwhile, the three first-round pairings will all be best-of-three series. Second-place Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves will play seventh-seed Timmins Majors, third-seed Soo Greyhounds will take on the sixth-place Sudbury Wolves minor midgets and fourth-place Kapuskasing Flyers will meet the fifth-seed New Liskeard Cubs.
The three winners will then advance to the second round of the playoffs. The lowest seed will face pennant-winning North Bay in one series and the other two opening-round winners will face off in a best-of-five set.
Trappers head coach Guy Blanchard confirmed to HockeyNewsNorth.com that North Bay will begin the second round of the playoffs with a home game on Saturday, February 18.
The regular-season placings to determine the second-and-third seeds came down to the final game of the regular season. In that match, the visiting Nickel Capital Wolves from Sudbury overcame a 6-1 deficit to stun the Soo 7-6 and steal second place from the Greyhounds.
Individually, Jacob Burton of the Nickel Capital Wolves edged Lucas Theriault of the Greyhounds for the scoring title, 84 points to 83. And the North Bay duo of Joel Rainville and Drew Joyal combined for a 1.99 goals against average, the best — by far — in the seven-team league.
PHOTO: First-place North Bay Trappers have a first-round playoff bye. (Photo by Shirley Mondoux.)
Congrat’s to Guy & the Midget ‘AAA’ Trappers!