By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay, ON – Max Roby scored a hat trick and Ewan Soutar stopped 36 of 37 as the Dryden Ice Dogs defeated the Thunder Bay North Stars 4-1 at Fort William Gardens. The win keeps Dryden in first place with six wins and a loss while the Stars dropped their fourth against one win.
Roby accounted for both Dryden goals in the first. Eli Antoine shot one through the crease that Roby swept into the net. As of this writing Antoine has the goal although Roby led the celebratory fly-by. Roby went low blocker on Stars’ starter Ethan Barron on a Dryden powerplay 1:48 later for the two-goal lead.
Ben Coatham squeezed one through the pads of Barron as the Dogs made it 3-0 at 11:49 of the second.
EJ Paddington notched his 5th of the year from the slot foiling Soutar’s shutout bid with 8:44 left in the game.
Thunder Bay pulled Barron in a bid to come back but Roby stole the puck in Stars’ territory and shot the puck into the empty cage to make it a 4-1 game with 3:09 to go. Carson Devine retrieved the puck and brought it to the Dryden bench, further confirming Roby’s three-goal night.
Barron stopped 26 of 29 for Thunder Bay. Soutar lowered his goals against average to 1.51, upped his save percentage to .953 and won his third game of the season and second in two nights.
Dryden was 1-4 on the powerplay. The Stars were 0-7. The Dogs took nine of 16 minor penalties assessed.
Dryden entertains Kenora for weekend pair next week, while Thunder Bay travels to Red Lake for two against the Miners.