The Norway House North Stars have jumped out to a two-games-to-none lead in their best-of-five series with the Peguis Juniors in the first round of the Keystone Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The North Stars, who finished sixth in league standings, 10 points behind the third-place Juniors, opened the series on the road with a 3-1 victory Feb. 20, establishing a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Mindy Speiss and Skylar Tait-Reaume and holding Peguis off the scoresheet until 4:35 of the third period, when Derrick Sinclair broke Neil Leifso's shutout after Kevin Braun had scored in the first minute of the final frame to make it a 3-0 game.

The following night, they strengthened their grip on the series, scoring three power play goals in the opening 20 minutes en route to a 6-2 win. Braun, Cody Ballard and Jon Mowat had the first period markers for Norway House and Tait-Reaume made it 4-0 with the only goal of the second. Ballard's second of the game came early in the third period before the Juniors tried to mount a comeback, with Spencer Sutherland and Doug Daniels scoring. Edward Lathlin recorded the final goal, assisted by Ballard, on the power play, with 7:28 left in the game.

Northern Manitoba's other KJHL team, the Cross Lake Islanders, who finished last in the league with only two wins in 32 games, were put out of their misery by the first-place Selkirk Fisherman, who finished 54 points ahead of Cross Lake in the standings and nearly outscored them by that many in a three-game sweep, with a combined total of 48 goals compared to just two for the Islanders. The Feb. 19 opener, a 12-1 shellacking, was actually the closest game, as Cross Lake went on to lose 15-0 the following day and 21-1 in the do-or-die match Feb. 21. Clark Ross and Jordan Richard were the only Islanders to score in the series, while Matt Glowa of the Fisherman had 14 goals and 14 assists.