Photos: Kerri-Ann Kanceruk – Kanceruk Photography
The SIJHL will complete 40 per cent of the 2024-25 regular season by the end of week 10.
Kam River’s 6-2 Sunday win snapped Dryden’s 15-game points streak. The Ice Dogs travel to Sioux Lookout for a weekend pair against the SIJHL’s new hottest team. The Bombers have points in their last nine games.
Dryden enters week 10 with a seven-point lead in the battle for first place. McLaren Paulsen is on pace for a 100-point season with 43 in 20 games. Carson Devine (34 points), Payton Hu (33), Max Roby (32), Emmanuel Nkombou (28) and Eli Antoine (27) join him in the top eight. The Ice Dogs are the only team with over 100 goals–120–29 more than second place Thunder Bay.
Kellan Mooney is 9-1-0 between the pipes and Braxton Castagno is 7-2-1.
The Bombers are seven points behind Dryden with two games in hand. Alex Lucas is 11th in league scoring with 23 points. Tait Howell and Jonah Smith have 18 each. They have allowed 47 goals, fewest in the league, led by the M&M boys–Matthew Ofukany (7-1-0, 2.36 GAA, .923 SV%) and Matthew Spencer-Dahl (5-3-0, 2.56, .928).
Thunder Bay sits in third place with 23 points, one ahead of the Walleye. Tyler Jordan has 25 points on the year. Alex Remenda, rookie Evan Simeoni, Beau Helmeczi, top points producing defenceman Tag Bryson and Cohen Tangedal all have 20 points or more and are bunched in the 12-16 slots in league scoring. Marcellus Francis has 17 points in eight games. Goaltender Ben Laurette is 7-3-0/2.54/.922 and Keenan Marks slashes in at 4-2-1/3.06/.903.
Kam River’s Jett Mintenko has 12 goals and 22 assists for 34 points to rank second in league production. Daxton Lang joined the six-man 30-point scorer’s club with a 12G-18A split. Ashton Sadauskas is 9-3-0 in net. He is joined by Thunder Bay’s Sam Keene, acquired from Ironwood. Long time back-up Travis VanderZwaag joined the Niagara Falls Canucks of the OJHL.
Fort Frances’ 19 points in 18 games keeps them above .500, four points north of fifth place Red Lake. The Lakers have 31.9% powerplay, second-best in the SI. Brady Krentz’ 20 points leads the team in production. Jack Wood is next with 17. Rookie Nolan Koethler and Gunner Paradis solidify the net position.
Red Lake is unbeaten in three, a point away from .500 status. They’ve scored 56 goals and allowed 56 goals. Nathan Dann has 18 points to lead the team. Ethan Rau leads the league with a 1.62 goals against average and .940 save percentage in his brief 185 minutes.
Ironwood has a 24.4% powerplay, and Marshall Thomas has 24 points for 10th place in league scoring. Kole Kronstedt is the SI’s ironman in net, logging 843 minutes between the pipes. Kronstedt’s minutes will likely continue to mount as former teammate Sam Keene was dealt to Kam River. The Lumberjacks venture to Kam River for a rare Tuesday morning (11 a.m.) start, and then to Red Lake for a Friday/Saturday pair.
The Lumberjacks have lost nine in a row.
The Islanders played two games against the Bombers last week, hanging in tough for two first periods against the league champs. They also toned down their penalty minutes recently. Josh Boyko’s eight goals and 10 points lead the team. They host Red Lake on Tuesday afternoon, and play Kam River and Thunder Bay at home this weekend while on an 11-game winless streak.
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AT THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS |
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| Elias Eisenbarth scored with 1:59 remaining in regulation as the streaking Dryden Ice Dogs defeated Thunder Bay 4-3 before 515 fans at Fort William Gardens. The Stars overcame a 3-1 deficit with two goals in the third to tie it. Eisenbarth clicked on a rebound effort for his fourth of the year making a winner of Kellan Mooney, who won his eighth of the year stopping 31 of 34. Thunder Bay’s Ben Laurette fell to 7-3-0, while facing 33 shots. Dryden opened up a two-goal first period lead, scoring a pair 63 seconds apart. Rylan Oatman’s powerplay wrister from the right dot at 8:44 broke the ice. Brandon Gustafson blocked a shot at his own blue line and notched an unassisted goal with a deke of Laurette at the other end to double the margin to two. Thunder Bay’s Marcellus Francis extended his points streak to eight games, fanning on his initial shot but connecting on his second, to make it 2-1 at 14:47 of period one. Jordan Wales scored the lone second period goal unassisted midway through to re-establish Dryden’s two-goal lead heading into the third. Thunder Bay’s Cohen Tangedal and Spencer Gryba knotted the score at 3-3 by 10:59 of the third. Tangedal’s one-timer on a pass from Francis, and Gryba’s screen shot from the point–his first of the year–did the damage for the Thunder Bay. Eisenbarth and Co. regained the lead and took the win with overtime under two minutes away. The Stars pulled Laurette with 1:10 remaining but to no avail. Karson Kerbes had two assists for Dryden. Dryden’s 30-point men: McLaren Paulsen, Carson Devine, Payton Hu and Max Roby, were all held pointless. Francis and Tangedal had two points each for Thunder Bay. Dryden was 1-3 with the man advantage while Thunder Bay was 0-3. The Ice Dogs took 18 of the 26 penalty minutes doled out by referees Lance Dysievick and Adam Massaro. |
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AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |
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| Dryden extended their points streak to 15 games with a 7-4 win over Kam River. McLaren Paulsen notched a hat trick, giving him 19 goals in 19 games. Paulsen got his first goal 34 seconds in, tapping a loose puck past Ashton Sadauskas for a 1-0 Ice Dogs’ lead. Jett Mintenko scored for Kam River 34 seconds later. Paulsen got his second at 3:46, re-directing Eli Antoine’s shot for a 2-1 Dryden edge. Kam River scored the first two goals of the second to take a 3-2 lead. Zach Baumann’s behind the net pass to Tie Schumacher tied it, and Daxton Lang scored on a Walleye 3-on-1. Dryden would score the next three for a 5-3 edge entering the third. Antoine got his 12th at 15:23, Paulsen netted his hat trick marker at 18:08 on an Ice Dogs’ powerplay, and Jordan Wales clicked on a Dryden 2-on-0 at 18:55. Brandon Gustafson made it 6-3 at 3:59 of the third. The Dryden native collected his third of the year. Lang pared the lead to two, beating Kellan Mooney on the doorstop for his 11th of the year. Carson Devine’s 10th midway through the third signaled the end of Sadauskas’ evening. New acquisition Sam Keene, acquired from the Ironwood Lumberjacks, stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief. Sadauskas stopped 27 of 34 to shoulder the loss, while Mooney made 27 saves to gain his ninth victory of the year. Antoine added two assists to his goal, and Emmanuel Nkombou had a pair of assists. Lang had three points, Mintenko had an assist, and Kaden Goodwin had two assists for the Walleye. Mooney stood his ground on Mintenko’s penalty shot attempt at 12:32 of the third, a pivotal stop that kept the game at 7-4 at the time. Kam River took four minor penalties. Dryden was 1-4 with the man advantage. Veteran Dryden play-by-play announcer Mike Ebbeling could not recall the last time the Ice Dogs were penalty-free for an entire game through his 20-plus years behind the mic. Attendance was 650.           |
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| Kaden Goodwin scored twice, Daxton Lang had four points, Jett Mintenko added three helpers and Ashton Sadauskas silenced the SIJHL’s top offence with a 29-save effort as the Kam River Fighting Walleye snapped Dryden’s 15-game points streak with a 6-2 win in Dryden. Kam River scored twice early to take a 2-0 lead. Goodwin got his 7th with a lucky bounce off a Dryden defenceman at 2:51 on a Walleye powerplay. Lang doubled down with his 12th from the slot after a face-off win 1:20 later. Dryden battled back to tie it before the first period ended. Eli Antoine swiped Brent Schrock’s fluttering point shot past Sadauskas at 13:16 and Evan Mayer notched his seventh unassisted at 18:03. It was all Kam River after the first. Edwin Liang put the Walleye up to stay at 50 seconds of the second, accepting Lang’s open ice pass and parking one high glove side past Braxton Castagno. Castagno shut the door on a Lang penalty shot, but Zach Baumann’s one-timer on the doorstep at 8:18 signaled the end of his night. Replacement Kellan Mooney was tested soon after on Amar Powar’s shorthanded breakaway attempt. He also thwarted Edwin Liang’s breakaway effort with a blocker save. Good times continued in the third as the Walleye added an insurance tally at 3:26. Goodwin sniped his second of the game from the slot area on an extended Kam River powerplay. Former Ice Dog Easton Debray was helped off the ice by two Kam River players and trainer Elora Ray after a knee on knee hit crumpled him to the ice at the expiration of the second period. Brandon Gustafson was called for a five-minute major leading to Goodwin’s third period goal. Carter Poddubny added his sixth of the season with just over a minute left in the game, gifted with a wide open net after a Dryden misplay left him open facing a yawning cage. Sadauskas picked up his ninth win against three losses, lowering his goals against to 2.96. Castagno’s record fell to 7-2-1 with his 12-save effort. Mooney stopped 15 of 17 in relief. Kam River was 2-5 on the powerplay while Dryden’s top ranked powerplay was shut down in five chances.           |
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