DRYDEN, Ont. – The Dryden GM Ice Dog have earned the opportunity to defend their Bill Salonen Cup title they won a year ago.
They did so by defeating the Fort Frances Lakers 10-2 Sunday to win their Superior International Junior Hockey League semifinal series in five games
Following a touching pre-game ceremony honouring all those affected by the horrific events involving the Humboldt Broncos Friday, Dryden set the tone early by grabbing a 3-0 lead before the contest was five and a half minutes old on tallies by Dakotah Woods, Jacen Bracko and Cory Dennis.
Ian Tookenay got one back for Fort Frances at 7:27 only to see the GM Ice Dogs counter just 16 seconds later on a Malcolm Huemmert effort.
The goals kept coming from there with Bracko adding his second of the stanza just moments after that before Tookenay helped set-up Jaedin Ness at 9:21 to conclude the first period offensive barrage.
Dryden would extend their cushion with a couple of second stanza markers off the sticks Huemmert and Eric Stout.
The home side then put the finishing touches on the series in the final frame as Tristan Simm, Evan Walls and Conner Mowatt concluded the night’s scoring.
Walls also had three assists for a four-point evening as he was one of eight GM Ice Dogs’ skaters with multi-point games.
Landon Pavlisin made 24 saves to record the win while Fort Frances affiliate netminder Matthew Booth faced 52 shots in the season-ending loss for the Lakers.
All SIJHL postseason games are streamed live and on demand at HockeyTV.com.
SIJHL Playoffs
Series C
Semifinal series
No. 1 Dryden GM Ice Dogs vs. No. 5 Fort Frances Lakers
Dryden wins best-of-seven series 4-1
Game 1: Dryden 7 Fort Frances 2
Game 2: Dryden 5 Fort Frances 2
Game 3: Dryden 7 Fort Frances 2
Game 4: Fort Frances 6 Dryden 3
Game 5: Dryden 10 Fort Frances 2
Photo credit: Darby Hatfield