By Gary Moskalyk
Kenora 1-27-1 3 pts .052 8th GF 57 GA 200 -143 PIMs 815 PP% 7.9 PK% 69.0 at Thunder Bay 22-9-3 47 pts .691 3rd GF 141 GA 109 +32 PIMs 538 PP% 18.5 PK% 82.8 Fri/Sat/Sun
Head to head: KEN 0-3-0 TBN 3-0-0
Kenora comes to Thunder Bay on the heels of arguably their best game of the year, a 55 shot 3-2 regulation loss, a heartbreaker, to Fort Frances. They’ll be in tough this weekend. Thunder Bay is on a seven-game heater.
Aaron Bertschinger continues to lead the Islanders in goals, 12, points, 24, and games played, 29. Brayden Mackay, second in team production with 18 points, and defenceman Reid Zurkan, 10 points, are the three Islanders who have played in all 29 games. John Paul Scaringi leads the team with 13 assists (17 points). Defenceman Braden Swampy has 13 points and is second in penalty minutes with 80. Zurkan has 83. Jeremiah Jacques has 12 points in 20 games.
In net, Matthew Stephens lowered his goals against and upped his save percentage to .898 with solid outing against the Lakers. Kaden King and Connor-Dunham-Fox are in reserve.
The Islanders average 28.1 penalty minutes per game, far and away the highest total in the league. The three teams next in line average 21.4. The league average is 20.1.
Kenora is the only team under 30 games played.
Thunder Bay has the top three point producers in the league. Edison Weeks has 52 (20G-32A), EJ Paddington has 50 (19G 31A) and Easton Mikus has 24 goals, tied with Owen Riffel of Sioux Lookout, and 24 helpers. All three have played in every North Stars game. Dimitri Trahiotis (5G-16A) and defenceman and Cohen Tangedal (6G-11A) have played in 33. Tyler Jordan has 19 goals and 15 helpers to sit 4th in team scoring. Jordan has five game winning goals in his 29 games. Cameron Dial has 15 assists (two goals) and has benefitted greatly since head coach Rob DeGagne has shuffled the big three for a different look.
Beau Helmeczi has 15 points with nine goals.
Ben Laurette has replaced Ethan Barron in net and has wins in two starts in the early going. Keenan Marks is second in league wins with 15, with a 3.07 GAA and .910 save percentage.
The Stars have an 18.5% success rate on the powerplay and kill off 82.8% of their penalties. The Stars are the second least penalized team in the league at 15.8 minutes per game.
Fort Frances 6-23-3 15 pts .234 7th GF 82 GA 146 -64 PIMs 685 PP% 13.9 PK% 80.4 at Wisconsin 10-16-4 24 pts .400 6th GF 100 GA 140 -40 PIMs 608 PP% 15.2 PK% 79.7 Fri/at Fort Frances Sat
Head to head: FFL 0-1-1 WIS 2-0-0
The Lakers snapped their 13 game winless streak with a win over Kenora.
Clark Scaddan and Brady Krentz lead the team in points with 22 each. Scaddan and Krentz have 11 and 10 goals respectively. Jack Wood is a point off the pace with 21 points (six goals). Recently acquired Brody Lindal has 19 points. Pierce Gouin has seven goals and seven helpers in 31 games.
Forward Ian Snooks hit 100 penalty minutes. The Lakers overall average 21.4 penalty minutes per game.
Jack Orchard has 1,111 minutes in net, with a 4.27 GAA and .900 SV%. Lukas Toth (1-7-1) and Gunner Paradis (1-2-1) are in reserve.
The Lakers have a powerplay of 13.9% and a kill rate of 80.4%–pretty much the league average of 80.9%.
Wisconsin took a couple of tough road losses in Thunder Bay. Dillon Phillips is averaging a point a game with team high in goals, 14, and assists, 17. He’s one of seven players who has played in all 30 games. Joining him is 27-point man Zach Johnson, defenceman Ryan Kayser (5G-15A), Marshall Thomas, William McDonnel, d-man Axel Watt, and rearguard Cooper Malkowski.
Rookie Nolan Fowler is third in team scoring with 13 goals and nine helpers. Rookies Collin Baker, 17, Connor Corcoran, 16, and Koen Burkholder, 14 are next in line. Kaden Postal has eight goals and 14 points.
The Lumberjacks are at exactly 100 goals for on the year.
Rylan Freshwater leads the goaltending parade with 661 minutes and is above .500 with a 6-4-0 record. William Forrester has 633 minutes in the cage and rookie Riley Burnett has four games under his belt with a win in his brief time with the club.
The Lumberjacks powerplay is 15.2% and the PK is 79.7%.
Wisconsin averages 20.3 penalty minutes. League average is 20.1.
The Lumberjacks have beaten Red Lake, Dryden, Thunder Bay and Kam River this season and have two shots left against Sioux Lookout in Wisconsin in February.
Kam River 23-8-1 47 pts .734 2nd GF 156 GA 91 +65 PIMs 685 PP% 25.5 PK% 81.7 at Sioux Lookout 24-6-3 51 pts .773 1st GF 135 GA 74 +61 PIMs 514 PP% 23.3 PK% 88.6 Fri/Sat
Head to head: KRW 4-0-0 SLB 1-1-2
Kam River won one of three in Red Lake and make the journey to Sioux Lookout to face the first place Bombers in a battle of league titans. The Walleye are on a rare two-game losing streak and are 5-4-1 in their last 10.
Kam River has five players at a point-a-game pace. Jeremy Dunmore has 20 goals and 17 assists to lead the team in points. Jett Mintenko and Riley Borody have 36 points each, and Carter Poddubny and Ryan Doucette have 32 each.
Five more players have 20 or more points. Nickolas Fagnilli, 29, defenceman Brydon Bell, 26, and d-man Liam Bell, 22, Braden Duchesne, 21 (with 13 goals) and Kaden Goodwin, 20, are in that crew.
Goodwin, a rookie, is joined by fellow rookies Edwin Liang, 17, Matteo Salvatore, 16, Carter Nailen, 15, and Max Wright, 14 as next in the points pecking order.
Poddubny, who leads the SIJHL in powerplay goals with 11, is joined by Duchesne and Goodwin as the only three players with 32 games played.
In net, Ashton Sadauskas brings an 18-3-0 record, 2.43 GAA, .907 SV% and 1,259 minutes to the crease. He lead the league in wins and minutes. Travis VanderZwaag is 5-5-1 as the back-up.
Kam River has the league’s best powerplay at 25.5%. They’ll be facing Sioux Lookout’s top notch penalty kill this weekend. The Walleye have a 81.7% PK rate of their own.
The Walleye average 21.4 penalty minutes per game.
The Bombers are ranked 18th in the latest CJHL rankings released Monday, Jan. 22. (Kam River is now an honourable mention). More importantly they’re four points ahead in the race for first place.
The Onanole Rifle Owen Riffel hasn’t played since January 6th. Riffel is co-leader in goals with 24 and is the league leader in points per game with 1.69. Blake and Connor Burke are knocking on 40 points with 39 and 38 respectively. Defenceman Dayvan Bull leads all defencemen with 31 points, nine of them goals. Jonah Smith and Nolan Palmer have 23 points apiece. Cobe Delaney, Tait Howell, and rookies Owen Cotter and Cedrik Robidoux round out the attack with 19, 17, 16 and 15 points.
The Bombers M.O. is more stopping goals than scoring them as their league leading 74 goals against would attest. Jack Osmond is 13-5-1 with a 2.22 GA and .941 SV% in 1,137 minutes. Rookie Matthew Spencer-Dahl is 7-1-2 with a 1.75 GAA and .950 SV% with 618 minutes–enough minutes to lead the league in goals against and save percentage. Fellow rookie Matthew Ofukany hasn’t lost in his four starts (2.75 GAA and .914 SV%).
The Bombers have the second best powerplay at 23.3% and league’s number one penalty kill at 88.6%.
Sioux Lookout is the least penalized team in the league with an average of 15.6 minutes in the bin.
Dryden 22-13-2 46 pts .622 5th GF 140 GA 116 +24 PIMs 792 PP% 22.3 PK% 78.4 at Red Lake 22-9-2 46 pts .697 4th GF 155 GA 90 +65 PIMs 595 PP% 22.7 PK% 88.3 Saturday
Head to head: DRY 2-4-0 RLM 4-2-0
The marquee matches just keep coming, and here’s another one in a long line. Dryden has a five-game winning streak and Red Lake just beat Kam River twice. Should be a dandy.
Dryden brings a pair of 20-goal scorers to Cochenour Arena. Max Roby has 21 goals and 17 assists, and McLaren Paulsen has 20 goals and 15 helpers. Eli Antoine is a 30-point man with 12 goals and 18 assists.
Bryce Benfield has 27 points in just 22 games. Sean Smith has 27 points and has played all 37 games. Carson Devine and Jackson Payeur are the other Ice Dogs who have played in all 37 games. As an aside, the Ice Dogs will only have 11 regular season games left after this tilt against Red Lake.
Devine has 25 points, Ryland Maier, 23, defenceman Sebastiano Biagi, 22, and d-man Tag Bryson, 20.
Impact forward James Hooton has rejoined the club after recovering from an off-season injury. He has three goals in two games.
Ewan Soutar is the man in net, leading the goaltending corps with a 12-6-1 record, 2.41 GAA and .924 SV%. Christian Lynch allowed a goal in his only start and looks to be the number two man from here on in.
Dryden’s powerplay is at 22.3% while their penalty kill is 78.4%.
The Ice Dogs average 21.4 penalty minutes per game.
Red Lake is tied for the best goal differential in the league at +65.
Aiden Corbett leads the team with 44 points on 22 goals. He’s also played in all 33 games. Luke DeCorby has played in 32 games and has 30 points with 12 goals. Rookie Noah Tenney has also played in all 33 games and has 29 points.
Nathan Dann has 18 goals in 22 games (28 points). Defencemen Gabe Tanton, 28, and Blake Hiltermann, 26 points are next. Hiltermann has 99 penalty minutes. Carter Deschamps, 21, Ryker Watt, 17 (with two teams), Ethan Cerone, 17 and Landon van Engelen, 17 are next.
Goaltender Ethan Neitsch has not played since the December shutdown. Neitsch is 7-5-2/2.16/.938 on the year. Noah Davis and Jackson Pundyk have been sharing the net since. Davis is 9-3-0 with 2.88 GAA and .925 SV% while Pundyk, acquired on Jan. 5th, is 2-0-0 in his three games.
Red Lake’s powerplay is 22.7%. The Miners’ penalty kill is 88.3%. The Miners have allowed 18 powerplay goals but have scored eight while shorthanded.
The Miners average 18.0 penalty minutes per game.