By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay, ON – McLaren Paulsen scored two in the third and Eric Clark turned aside 33 shots for his 18th win and second shutout of the season as the Dryden Ice Dogs defeated the Thunder Bay North Stars 4-0. The SIJHL’s oldest rivals attracted a crowd of 425 to the Gardens.
The Ice Dogs are on a seven-game winning streak. The Stars dropped to 17-15-4 on the year.
Garrett Hrechka notched his second of the year–and second in two games– on a Dryden powerplay, grabbing Jack Cullen’s rebound and firing it past North Star starting goalie Conner Lemieux to open the scoring at 8:38. Kaden Bandura stripped Lemieux of the behind the Stars’ net and scored unassisted at 16:46 to double the lead.
Keenan Marks clamoured over the boards after the goal and was lights out in the Stars net, matching Clark save for save to keep the Stars in the game. Thunder Bay killed off a full two-minute 5-on-3 at the end of the second period against the SI’s best powerplay.
Clark made a 10-bell save on Easton Glousher with an outstretched glove save three minutes in to preserve the Dryden two-goal edge.
McLaren went blocker side to finally solve Marks at 6:12, and then deflected Easton Debray’s shot at 9:01 to close out the scoring.
Bandura added an assist for a two-point night.
Lemieux stopped four of six and took the loss for Thunder Bay. Marks turned aside 33 of 35.
The Stars played through three suspensions from Friday and Dylan Bertrand’s injury. The Dogs had two players suspended from Friday and lost Landen Stromme for two to four weeks. The Saturday game was chippy, 56 minutes in penalties were called, but not to Friday’s level.
Affiliated player Drew Caddo made his first appearance as a North Star since October 15th.