The Port Hope Predators began to put a little distance between themselves and the fourth-place Peterborough Liftlock Stars in the Eastern Division standings with a pair of wins this past weekend.

Port Hope remains in third place, four points ahead of the Stars and three points behind the Kingston Voyageurs.

The Predators defeated the Quinte West Pack 7-4 on Friday, January 18, and avenged their January 14 loss to the Cobourg Cougars with a 6-3 victory at the Jack Burger Sports Complex on Saturday, January 19.

Port Hope resident Cory Giroux was brought up from the Fort Erie Meteors for the Friday game against the Pack. He made a favourable impression with the Quinte West statisticians and was selected the second star of the game.

Giroux scored Port Hope's third goal, in the second stanza. He returned to Fort Erie for a Saturday game against St. Catharines, where he contributed a goal and an assist to his team's 7-0 win.

Giroux is tied with teammate Lucas Van Natter for fourth place in the scoring statistics for the Golden Horseshoe Junior Hockey League.

Jeremy McCarty began a hat trick with a goal for the Preds during the first frame Friday. He added two more tallies, scoring once in each of the second and third periods.

Kevin Parker scored in the first, while Tyler Miller and Chad Dunlop added markers in the final frame.

Josh Shaw and Adam McAllister scored singletons for Quinte, and Jeff Nickerson scored a pair against Billy Stone.

Quinte managed a total of 26 shots on goal while Port Hope mustered 43.

Dunlop had the hot hand against the Cougars on Saturday, racking up three goals by scoring one in each period.

Garrett Noiles added a marker in the opening frame, while Mitch Moffatt and McCarty both scored in the third.

Mathew Singleton, Eamonn Courtney and Nicholas Diachenko did the deed for Cobourg.

Spencer Finney got the call between the pipes for the Predators. He turned away 42 of 46 shots.

The most interesting statistic of the game was the penalty minutes. Both teams displayed outstanding discipline, with Cobourg serving six minutes in the box on three infractions and Port Hope only having a pair of penalties called against them for a total of four minutes.

The Predators have seven regular season games remaining. They return to action in Bowmanville on Friday evening, January 25.