Eli Antoine’s five goals in a single period was put an exclamation point on Dryden’s week as the Ice Dogs opened up a six-point lead in the SIJHL standings. The Ice Dogs travel to Thunder Bay for a Tuesday match, then entertain the Fighting Walleye on Saturday and Sunday. The ‘Dogs have a 13-game point streak on the line. Twelve of those 13 games are wins.
McLaren Paulsen leads the league in scoring with 39 points on 16 goals and 23 assists. Carson Devine has 32, and Max Roby and Payton Hu have 31 points each. Emmanuel Nkombou has 26 points to hold down sixth place in league scoring. Dryden’s 107 goals pace the league.
Thunder Bay’s point streak came to an end with Sioux Lookout’s weekend sweep. As head coach Rob DeGagne noted, the team is allowing too many goals of late. Not too many of them are on the penalty kill however, as the Stars lead the league with a 94.2% kill rate. Tyler Jordan has 25 points, Alex Remenda 23, and rookie Evan Simeoni has 22. All three in the top 10. Rookie Marcellus Francis cracks the top-20 with nine goals and six assists in seven games played.
The Bombers are a point back of Thunder Bay, with six wins and a tie in their last seven. Alex Lucas has 16 points (10 goals) to pace the team offensively. Captain Jonah Smith has 15 points. The Bombers have allowed a league-low 43 goals. Goalies Matthew Ofukany (2.27 GAA, .928 SV%) and Matthew Spencer-Dahl (2.75 GAA, .924 SV%) are a big part of that.
Kam River is on a five-game heater with a big away series with Dryden fast approaching. Jett Mintenko’s 29 points paces the team offensively. Captain Daxton Lang has 23. Ashton Sadauskas has an 8-2-0 record, with a 2.60 GAA and .916 in his 10 60-minute starts.
Fort Frances turnaround season has them in fifth place, a win above .500 with an equal amount of goals for and against (47). Brady Krentz is averaging over a point a game and Jack Wood and Gavin Simon are right behind. The Lakers have a 30.0% powerplay, good for second place behind Dryden’s 37.8%.
Red Lake has a big series away against the Lakers in week nine. Just minus-3 in goal differential, the Miners are looking to reach .500 with a sweep. Nathan Dann has 18 points and rookie Quinn Szpak has 16 to pace the attack. Recent addition Ethan Rau has impressed in his two starts in net, sporting a 1.02 GAA and .964 SV%. He already has one of the six shutouts posted by goalies this year.
Ironwood ventures to Fort Frances for a Tuesday tilt, badly in need of a win. They’re on a eight-game slide. Marshall Thomas continues to shine, with 22 points in 18 games. Goalie Kole Kronstedt has appeared in a league-high 15 games with 783 minutes. The Ironwood powerplay is clicking along at 25.0%.
Kenora has a weekend pair away against Sioux Lookout with just four points on the year. Josh Boyko’s seven goals highlights the offence.
Two Tuesday games, two on Friday, three on Saturday and a Kam River/Dryden barn burner on Sunday highlight Week 9 action.
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AT IRONWOOD LUMBERJACKS |
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| Dryden ran their points streak to 12 games with an 8-3 win over Ironwood. Payton Hu led the Ice Dogs’ attack with a pair of goals. Carson Devine had a goal and two assists giving him 30 points on the year. McLaren Paulsen leads the SIJHL points parade, picking up a goal and helper in this game for 36 on the season. Elias Eisenbarth and Max Roby also had goals and assists, and Eli Antoine had two helpers. The ‘Dogs have five of the top seven scorers and lead the SI in goals with 97 overall. The Lumberjacks are on a seven-game losing streak. Dryden led 3-0 through one, 6-1 after two, and the teams traded two goals each in the third. Devine, Eisenbarth and Hu did the damage in the first for Dryden. Devine and Hu scored on the powerplay. Nolan Fowler deflected a Jack Croghan shot at 6:03 of the second period to get the ‘Jacks on the board, shaving the lead to 3-1. Paulsen recorded his 15th to restore the three-goal margin, Nicholas McCallen scored his first SIJHL goal at 17:27, and Kelby Diehl dialed in his fourth of the year for Dryden’s third powerplay marker. In the third, Hu made it 7-1 Dryden. Josh Gulden sniped one past Braxton Castagno from a tough angle on an Ironwood powerplay, and Croghan hit the top corner to make it 7-3. Roby scored unassisted–Dryden fourth powerplay goal of the game–to polish off the scoring. Dryden was 4-5 on the powerplay, boosting their league-leading powerplay to 35.5% on the season. Ironwood was 2-6. The Ice Dogs accumulated 28 penalty minutes to 18 for Ironwood. Braxton Castagno collected the goaltending win, collecting his sixth ‘W’ of the year. Sam Keene stopped 36 of 42 in two periods of action, taking the loss. Kole Kronstedt appeared in his 14th game of the year, shunting aside seven of the nine shots he faced in the third. Attendance was 250. |
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| Eli Antoine had a game for the ages, scoring five unanswered goals in the third period for a 10-2 Dryden win over the Ironwood Lumberjacks. The teams were tied 2-2 midway through the second period before Dryden pumped in three to take a 5-2 lead heading into Antoine’s historic finish in the final frame. McLaren Paulsen scored into a wide open net after Kole Kronstedt made an initial save for a 1-0 Dryden lead. Max Roby registered his 16th at 10:55 to make it 2-0. Nolan Fowler scored an unassisted shorthanded marker for Ironwood with 17 seconds left in the period to narrow the lead to one. Fowler connected for his second of the game, this time on a Lumberjacks’ powerplay, to tie the game at 2-2. Roby and Jordan Wales scored on Dryden powerplays 27 seconds apart, and Carson Devine added his ninth at 18:31 to open up a 5-2 Ice Dogs lead. Antoine’s barrage started at 6:22 of the third. He got one through the legs of Kronstedt for his first. Emmanuel Nkombou set up Antoine for a shorthanded snipe at 11:28. Antoine buried a backhander at 13:55 for the hat trick. Goals four and five came at 17:27 and 19:08 on Dryden powerplays. Antoine ended the game with 11 goals on the season. Roby added an assist, Paulsen had two assists, Nkombou assisted on four goals, Payton Hu had three assists, and Elias Eisenbarth added two apples. Paulsen is barking at 40 points with 16 goals and 23 helpers for 39 on the year. Devine, Roby and Hu are over 30, and Nkombou has 26 points on the year good for 6th place in SIJHL production. The ‘Dogs shot past 100 team goals with 107 in 17 games. Braxton Castagno elevated his record to 7-1-1 making 29 saves. Kronstedt stopped 38 of 48. Kronstedt leads the league with 783 minutes between the pipes. |
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