SIJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
Release Date: Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012
Ice Dogs remain unbeaten; Iron Rangers edge Clydesdales late
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The Dryden Ice Dogs remained unbeaten handing the Minnesota Wilderness their first loss while the Minnesota Iron Rangers rallied late before going on to edge the Duluth Clydesdales in overtime in Superior International Junior Hockey League action Sunday.
DRYDEN ICE DOGS 5 MINNESOTA WILDERNESS 2 – The Ice Dogs capped off a successful opening weekend of the SIJHL campaign by stopping the two-time defending league champion Wilderness at Memorial Arena.
A Tyson Holder tally midway through the contest stood up as the game-winner as Dryden improved to 3-0 early on while the Wilderness slipped to 2-1.
The lone goal of the opening frame came off the stick of Dryden’s Tyler Walsh who found the back of the net 3:13 in beating Minnesota starter JoJo Jeanetta.
After Jeremy Johnson struck early in the middle frame to tie things up the Ice Dogs got goals 32 seconds apart from Jesse Linner and Holder to go up 3-1 after 40 minutes.
They then tacked on markers by Chris Belhumeur and Walsh to go up four before Zach Thielen scored for the Wilderness in the final minute to wrap-up the night’s scoring.
Eric Szymczyk made 25 stops to pick-up the win with Jeanette facing 22 shots in the loss.
MINNESOTA IRON RANGERS 4 DULUTH CLYDESDALES 3 (OT) – Jonathon Losurdo’s goal with five seconds remaining in overtime was the difference as the Iron Rangers rallied late to upend Duluth at the Heritage Sports Center.
Zachary Zanoya put Duluth up one with the only goal of the first period.
The Clydesdales extended their cushion to 2-0 at 13:18 of the middle frame as Kevin Phillips struck from the top of the crease firing the puck past Chase Hollander.
Down a pair entering the third the Iron Rangers started their comeback 31 seconds into the final stanza with Joey Haydock beating Duluth goaltender Dom DeGuiseppi.
Six minutes later Haydock struck again to tie it only to see Darrick Howard give the Clydesdales the lead once again with 4:21 remaining in regulation.
Then with Hollander on the bench in favour of an extra attacker Trevor Hoth slammed home the equalizer with four seconds remaining to force overtime.
Just as it appeared that the first shootout of the young SIJHL was going to be required to decide a winner, Losurdo buried the game-winner giving the Iron Rangers their first win of the season and initial victory in the SIJHL coaching career of Chris Walby.
DeGuiseppi was stellar in helping his club pick up a point making 50 saves on the night. Hollander had 19 saves in registering the triumph.
SIJHL action resumes Tuesday as the Thunder Bay North Stars host the Sioux Lookout Flyers at the Fort William Gardens. Game time is 7:30 p.m.