GALLERIES: Bill Salonen Cup Finals Recap for Games 1 & 2

Kam River led 3-1 through 20 minutes.

Dryden’s Emmanuel Nkombou had an early chance, nullified by Evan Lachimea’s “good” holding penalty at 1:19. Goodwin opened the scoring at 3:38, sending a bullet past Mooney blocker side on a Kam River powerplay.

Daxton Lang intercepted the puck behind the Dryden net, made a centering feed, and Goodwin’s second goal of the game and eighth of the post season made it 2-0 at 7:45.

Jordan Wales replied for Dryden at 9:41, banging in his own rebound for number three on the playoff year. Rylan Oatman and Evan Mayer collected assists.

Carter Poddubny deflected Caleb Labelle’s point shot for a two-goal Walleye lead at 16:35 heading into the second frame.

Kam River outshot Dryden 18-12 in the first and 15-4 in the second. Jacob Lamoureux made it 4-1 at 2:18 on the powerplay rifling a powerplay snipe from a sharp angle for his sixth. Jett Mintenko beat Mooney blocker side from the high slot at 8:38, signaling the move to Noah Davis.

Mooney stopped 20 of 25. Davis announced his presence with a glove snare on Callum Halls’ rising shot right off the hop.

Dryden’s McLaren Paulsen tightened the score to 5-2 early in the third. Paulsen buried a rebound past Sadauskas on a Dryden powerplay at 1:46.

Callum Halls iced the game at 13:57 on a 2-on-1 with Nico Simeoni. Halls got his second with Simeoni notching his first assist of the playoffs.

Lang had two assists for Kam River.

Davis made 15 saves in his relief appearance, adding a pair of late saves with seconds left in the game on a Walleye 5-on-3 powerplay.

Kam River took 16 of the 26 penalty minutes handed out by referees Whitney Van Horne and Mike English. Adam Bryck and
Mike Esposito patrolled the lines.

The Walleye were 2-5 with the man advantage. Dryden was 1-3.

Attendance was a robust 728.

Goaltending and defence were key. First star Noah Davis stopped 28 of 29 in his first playoff start, while Ashton Sadauskas (third star) took his first playoff loss, shunting aside 20 of 22 shots.

There were plenty of notable saves in a scoreless first. Sadauskas stymied Max Roby at the 7:00-minute mark, and Davis denied Kaden Goodwin at the other end moments later. Jordan Wales tapped Rylan Oatman’s pass wide of the net around 11 minutes in for Dryden, and Jett Mintenko was robbed by Davis with a 10-bell save with two minutes left in the frame. Shots favoured Kam River 7-6.

Sam Sargent’s wrap around at 8:17 of the second period gave Kam River a 1-0 lead. Sargent circled the back of the Dryden cage and fired in his second of the playoffs. Nico Simeoni and Edwin Liang garnered assists on the play. Goodwin had the best look as the teams exchanged good scoring chances at the expiration of period two. Shots were 11-6 for Kam River.

Dryden’s Max Roby took a second ten-minute misconduct ending his evening at 5:49 of the third. Minus their top scorer the Ice Dogs tied the score at 10:55 of the third. Carson Devine got his third of the post season on an Ice Dog powerplay with a wrist shot glove side. Elias Eisenbarth and McLaren Paulsen drew assists on the play, as the Pack threw the puck around during a dominant man advantage. Antoine deflected in Emmanuel Nkombou’s point shot at 12:50 to give the ‘Dogs a 2-1 lead which proved to be the decisive blow. Nicholas McAllen had the secondary assist.

Sadauskas left the cage at 18:42 of the third but Davis and co. preserved the lead.

Dryden was 1-3 with the man advantage and shut down Kam River’s two chances. Dryden had three of the five minor penalties called by Matt Heitto and Adam Massaro.

Walleye forward Jacob Lamoureux, injured in game one, was a notable scratch.

Attendance was 528.