Jason La Rose
It’s a pretty simple formula: Score a lot of goals, win a lot of games.
That sums up the 2025-26 season for the Thunder Bay North Stars, who filled the net as well as any Junior A team in Canada en route to a Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) championship and a place at the 2026 Centennial Cup, presented by Tim Hortons.
Across their 48 regular-season games, the North Stars piled up 229 goals—38 more than any other SIJHL team. Their 4.77 goals per game ranked 12th among the 116 teams that are part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL).
They scored at least six goals on 17 occasions, got to eight 11 times and reached 10+ twice.
Despite the league-best total, Thunder Bay didn’t have 30-goal scorer; Lucas Bertolin led with 27, one of three to reach the 20-goal plateau, and another eight hit double-digits.
The North Stars were even better in the playoffs, scoring 78 goals in 16 games—although almost half of those (37) came in a four-game sweep of the seventh-place Ironwood Lumberjacks in the quarterfinals.
They went the absolute distance to win their first SIJHL championship since 2019, getting a goal from James Cullison (his first of the playoffs and just second of the entire season) 9:14 into overtime of Game 7 to eliminate the Fort Frances Lakers, the league’s best regular-season team, and hoist the Bill Salonen Cup.
Thunder Bay had six players average a point per game in the postseason, led by Mitch Vanderwey (8-22—30 in 16 GP), and six had at least eight goals—Matthew Bertolin (11), Easton Glousher (11), Lucas Bertolin (10), Vanderwey (8), Cohen Tangedal (8) and Matthew Lysak (8).
It has been 20 years since the North Stars’ only other appearance at Canada’s National Junior A Championship; led by future NHLers Robert Bortuzzo and Carter Hutton, they reached the semifinals of the 2006 tournament, where they gave back a two-goal lead in the final two minutes of what ended as a 3-2 overtime loss to the Burnaby Express.
HOW THEY GOT TO SUMMERSIDE
Superior International Junior Hockey League Quarterfinal: defeated Ironwood Lumberjacks 4-0 (7-3, 10-1, 11-1, 8-0) Semifinal: defeated Dryden Ice Dogs 4-1 (1-0 OT, 4-3, 2-3, 3-1, 10-3) Final: defeated Fort Frances Lakers 4-3 (4-3 OT, 3-2, 3-4, 1-2, 4-2, 2-5, 5-4 OT)
REGULAR SEASON
Record (W-L-OTL): 30-14-4 (3rd in SIJHL) Goals for: 229 (1st in SIJHL) Goals against: 142 (5th in SIJHL) Power play: 62 for 215 (28.8% – 1st in SIJHL) Penalty killing: 204 of 245 (83.3% – 1st in SIJHL) Longest winning streak: 6 (Feb. 28-March 13)
Top 3 scorers: • Matthew Bertolin (22G 41A 63P – 2nd in SIJHL) • Lucas Bertolin (27G 30A 57P – 4th in SIJHL) • Evan Simeoni (14G 42A 56P – 6th in SIJHL)
PLAYOFFS
Record: 12-4 Goals for: 78 Goals against: 37 Power play: 14 for 64 (30.4%) Penalty killing: 40 of 49 (81.6%)
Top 3 scorers: • Mitch Vanderwey (8G 22A 30P) • Lucas Bertolin (10G 13A 23P) • Matthew Bertolin (11G 10A 21P)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
2006 – Fort William North Stars | 4th place | 2-3 | 12GF 13GA
COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY COMMITMENTS
None
CJHL TOP 20 RANKINGS
Sept. 29 – not ranked Oct. 6 – not ranked Oct. 13 – not ranked Oct. 20 – not ranked Oct. 27 – not ranked Nov. 3 – not ranked Nov. 10 – not ranked Nov. 17 – not ranked Nov. 24 – not ranked Dec. 1 – not ranked Dec. 8 – not ranked Dec. 15 – not ranked Dec. 22 – not ranked Jan. 5 – not ranked Jan. 12 – not ranked Jan. 19 – not ranked Jan. 26 – not ranked Feb. 2 – not ranked Feb. 9 – not ranked Feb. 16 – not ranked Feb. 23 – not ranked March 2 – not ranked March 9 – not ranked