Photos: Kerri-Ann Kanceruk
By Gary Moskalyk
Sioux Lookout at Dryden Friday PPD poor road conditions
Thunder Bay 4 at Dryden 1 Saturday
Thunder Bay defeated Dryden 4-1 in Dryden for their first regular season victory over their longtime rivals in five tries this year. Dryden will invade the Gardens March 15th and 16th to close out the season series.
Thunder Bay rose to third in the standings, two points ahead of Dryden, three back of Kam River and four behind first place of Sioux Lookout.
Keenan Marks backstopped the victory, stopping 28 of 29 for his 17th victory.
Cohen Tangedal got Thunder Bay on the board at 9:51 of the first, notching his 9th on a rebound on a Stars’ powerplay.
Adam Zimmerman’s shot bounced off the back boards and into the crease area going off Marks’ pads and in to tie the game at 12:14. Dimitri Trahiotis scored the game winner at 18:14. Beau Helmeczi won the draw cleanly deep in Ice Dogs’ zone. Trahiotis teed it up and one-timed his 10th past Ewan Soutar.
Edison Weeks scored at 11:20 of the second, stealing the puck on a penalty kill for his 22nd of the year and a 3-1 Stars lead. Christian Rapp closed out the scoring at 3:40 of the third on a 2-on-1. Easton Glousher and Eric Sheriff collected assists on the play.
Soutar dropped to 13-7-1 on the year, making 26 saves.
The Stars were 1-7 with the man advantage while shutting down Dryden in their four powerplay attempts. The Ice Dogs took 26 penalty minutes to Thunder Bay’s 10. A crowd of 317 attended.
Kenora 0 at Red Lake 6 Tuesday
Luke DeCorby scored three goals and Ethan Neitsch made 23 save for his third shutout as the Miners dispatched the Kenora Islanders 6-0 at Cochenour Arena. The game was close until 7:39 of the third when Ryker Watt’s one-timer made it 3-0. With 2:44 to go Red Lake poured in three late ones, ruining a stellar performance by Connor Dunham-Fox who made 55 saves.
The Islanders took 66 penalty minutes to Red Lake’s 18.
Jared Burnett scored his 6th from the point on a Red Lake powerplay at 4:33 of the first to open the scoring. DeCorby got his first of the game 1:14 later, going over the glove of Dunham-Fox on a shorthanded breakaway.
The Miners outshot Kenora 23-6 in the first period, tacked on 14 more in a scoreless second, adding 24 more shots in a penalty-filled third.
DeCorby scored his second goal at 17:16 of the third, Andrew Sikora added his 6th at 18:03, and DeCorby’s hatty came on the powerplay with 32 seconds left. DeCorby has 15 goals on the season.
DeCorby also had an assist for a four-point night. His 36 points places him 16th in league scoring. Burnett added an assist, and Austin Derzaph, Blake Hiltermann, Matthew MacPherson and Preston Tauter all had two assists each.
Red Lake was 2-7 with the man advantage while killing off five Kenora penalties.
Neitsch earned his 8th win, lowered his goals against to 2.20 and improved his save percentage to .936.
The Miners won all seven meetings between the two clubs.
Thunder Bay 4 at Kam River 5 (OT) Friday
Jeremy Dunmore scored his 22nd at 38 seconds of overtime as the Kam River Fighting Walleye defeated Thunder Bay before 801 fans at Norwest Arena.
Inclement weather shut down three other SIJHL games.
The Walleye scored three in the second after a scoreless first period and were full value for it. Kaden Goodwin picked up a rebound and fired home his 10th at 3:36, Ryan Daponte buried Carter Poddubny’s centering pass for his 3rd at 10:39, and Riley Borody scored on Keenan Marks doorway at 13:58. Cameron Dial’s one-timer over Ashton Sadauskas’ shoulder put the North Stars on the board 42 seconds later.
The teams combined for 45 shots in a highly entertaining third period. Easton Mikus spun and fired in his 25th early in the third to make it 3-2 on a Stars’ powerplay, and Alex Remenda’s 5th on another powerplay at 8:20 tied the score.
Cohen Tangedal dove to poke in a loose puck at 17:49 to put Thunder Bay ahead 4-3. With Sadauskas out for an extra attacker former Star forward Evan Lachimea batted one out of the air five feet from the goal line to knot the score at 18:48 sending the game to overtime.
Dunmore worked his way past a Stars’ defender in 3-on-3 overtime and converted on a short breakaway with Ryan Doucette and Jacob Sargent assisting on the play for the game winner.
Marks stopped 52 of 57 shots in the Thunder Bay cage and stood on his head for a good share of them. Sadauskas had 36 stops for Kam River for his 21st win.
Dunmore had an assist earlier in the game for a two-point night and Sargent had two helpers for Kam River. Dial and Remenda had two points each for Thunder Bay.
The Stars were 2-3 with the man advantage while Kam River was 0-3. The Stars took 30 of 50 penalty minutes meted out by referees Adam Blando and Jason Begin.
Kam River auctioned off a Max Domi autographed jersey and his book “No Days Off” chronicling Domi’s battle with juvenile diabetes in support of JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).
Fort Frances at Red Lake Friday PPD poor road conditions
Fort Frances 2 at Red Lake 6 Saturday
Defenceman Blake Hiltermann scored a pair and Red Lake scored the last four goals to pull away with a 6-2 home win over Fort Frances. Goaltender Ethan Neitsch stopped 26 of 28 to up his record to 9-7-2 with a 2.18 goals against average and .935 save percentage. The Miners may be in 5th place but they lead the SIJHL in goal differential with a +72.
Magnus Pearson opened the scoring at 2:57 of the second period on a Lakers’ powerplay. Neitsch made a couple of saves but Pearson was right there to capitalize on a loose puck while facing an open cage. Justin Gelderland tied the score 1:34 later. His shot from the boards dinged off the post and past Jack Orchard.
Hiltermann’s high snipe under the bar at 9:07 put the Miners up by a goal. Lakers Remington Richardson won a foot race and beat Neitsch to tie it at 2-2. Hiltermann’s 10th of the year from the slot on a Miners’ powerplay with 1:05 left in the middle frame proved to be the game winner. Hiltermann leads all SIJHL defencemen with 10 goals.
Matthew MacPherson, Preston Tauter and Ryker Watt on a powerplay tallied in the third period to put the game away. MacPherson and Tauter also recorded assists for two points each for Red Lake.
The Miners are two points out of 4th with three games in hand on Dryden, and four points back of Thunder Bay with a game in hand on them.
Orchard faced 37 shots in the Fort Frances loss.
Red Lake was 2-7 with the man advantage while the Lakers were 1-5. A total of 46 penalty minutes were doled out with the Lakers taking 26 of them.
Kenora at Wisconsin Friday PPD poor road conditions
Kenora 2 at Wisconsin 6 Saturday
The Lumberjacks rumbled out to a 4-0 lead led by Dillon Phillips’ two goals and an assist as the Lumberjacks defeated Kenora 6-2 before 302 fans at the Hayward Sports Centre in Wisconsin. Riley Burnett shunted aside 30 of 32 shots to even his record to 3-3-1 on the year.
Sutton Majeske opened the scoring less than a minute in, roaring in from the left wing side for his 3rd of the year. Collin Baker got his 12th from the high slot at 12:12 to double the score.
Phillips got the next two 49 seconds apart in the second. Phillips accepted Kaden Postal’s perfect pass and fired it past Kaden King at 10:43 with Kenora’s Jayden McPherson-Nepinak writhing pain at the Wisconsin blue-line after a heavy hit. McPherson-Nepinak was helped off the ice at the expiration of play.
Phillips got his second of the game and 19th of the year on a Wisconsin 3-on-1 to make it 4-0. Chance Traverse shaved the lead to 4-1 on a Kenora powerplay at 15:25 . Marshall Thomas regained the four-goal Wisconsin lead with 29 seconds left in the middle frame on a Wisconsin powerplay.
Wisconsin and Kenora traded third period goals. Ryan Kayser made it 6-1 at 6:41 with Wisconsin up a man, and Brayden Mackay struck at 9:30 for Kenora to close out the scoring.
Phillips sits in 6th place in league scoring with 45 points.
Kayser added an assist for two points. Mackay had a goal and assist and Swampy had two helpers for Islanders.
King faced 48 Wisconsin shots. Kenora took seven minor penalties to Wisconsin’s four. The Lumberjacks were 2-6 on the powerplay, while Kenora was 1-3.
Kam River 3 at Sioux Lookout 2 Saturday
The Fighting Walleye scored two in the third and Ashton Sadauskas made 38 saves to lead Kam River to a 3-2 regulation time victory over Sioux Lookout before 424 fans at the Hangar.
Kam River struck for two third period goals to erase a 2-1 deficit. Ryan Daponte tied the game at 8:24 unassisted to erase a 2-1 deficit, and Liam Bell connected on a one-timer at 12:27 for the game winner. Sadauskas picked up his league-leading 23rd win.
The Walleye trail the Bombers by a single point in the battle for first. Both teams have played 38 games with 11 to go in the regular season.
Owen Riffel scored on a Sioux Lookout powerplay at 8:05 of the first for a 1-0 Bomber lead. Riffel’s league-leading 28th was a backhander. Kam defenceman Brydon Bell snapped one home bar down at 10:50 to tie it at 1-1 through one period.
Owen Cotter put the Bombers up 2-1 late in the second. Cotter deflected Josh Greene’s point shot for his 11th. Kaden Veller picked up the secondary assist on the play.
Daponte’s 4th from the slot squeaked past Jack Osmond during the third period rally. Bell went over Osmond’s catching shoulder to render the final verdict. Osmond was pulled for an extra attacker with about a minute left but to no avail.
The game figured to be a tight defensive battle going in, which it was. The Walleye rolled to their fourth straight win, pulling to within a single point of first place.
Osmond turned aside 31 of 34 in the loss, lowering his record to 14-5-2.
The Bombers were 1-7 on the powerplay and shut down the Walleye’s three chances with a man up.
Kam River took eight minor penalties to Sioux Lookout’s four.
Sioux Lookout travels to Red Lake on Tuesday for another marquee clash, while Kam River has the week off.