Written by Gary Moskalyk
The SIJHL has a new Commissioner (Dean Thibodeau), Larry Flett of the Islanders is tied for the league lead in goals, Travis Vanderzwaag and Ashton Sadauskas are back in net for Kam River, penalty minutes are down eight games in, Wisconsin is now Ironwood, the Islanders already have a point in the standings (and came within 1:41 of winning), overtime is seven minutes of four-on-four with a tie possible at expiration… and here we go again. The story of the 2024-25 season is about to unfold. Buckle up!
 | AT FORT FRANCES LAKERS |  | ||
| Fort Frances fired 61 shots, four new Lakers scored, and Gunner Paradis stopped 28 of 29 shots as the home town boys defeated the visiting Kenora Islanders 7-1. Whittaker Heart had a pair of goals including the season opener, Gunnar Simon had a goal and assist, and veteran Brady Krentz had two assists to buoy the Laker attack. The Lakers took a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes. Heart's point shot beat Kaden King two minutes in and Emerson Evans made it 2-0 with a goal-mouth dangle at 8:23. Fort Frances tacked on two more in the second frame courtesy of Carter Deschamps and Kyle Garland before Larry Flett broke Paradis shutout bid with deflection at 16:15 on an Islander powerplay. Gunnar Simon, Heart and Devante Pratt tacked on three in the third to put a seal on it. Final shots were 61-29 in favour of Fort. Kenora, the most heavily penalized team in the league last year, was assessed three minor penalties. The Lakers took four minors. The Islanders were 1-3 with the man advantage. The Lakers were 2-4. Attendance was 544. |
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| Larry Flett gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead at 16:50 of the third, Carter Deschamps scored 1:29 later to tie it, and seven minutes of four-on-four overtime solved nothing, as the Islanders and Lakers battled to a 3-3 tie before 317 patrons at Ice For Kids Arena. Fort Frances notched two goals 49 seconds apart in the first frame to jump out to an early 2-0 lead. Jack Wood's wrist shot from the top of the right circle on Lakers' powerplay gave the home team a 1-0 lead. Noah McPherson was wide open as the Lakers picked up a loose puck along the boards. Ian Snooks passed to Landon Lowes who found McPherson perched on the doorstep. Kenora got the next three goals to take the lead. Flett got his second of the season at 2:01 of the second to tighten the score to 2-1. Flett's unassisted marker came on an ill-advised pinch at the Islander blue-line that allowed Flett to rumble down the right side and wrist one past Nolan Koethler blocker side. Three goals were scored with 5:01 left in the third. Hudson Favreau tied the score at 14:59. Favreau picked up a loose puck near Koethler's crease and put a low shot in to knot the score at 2-2. Flett's third goal of the year and second of the game came from a Laker turnover. Flett's wrister under the cross-bar gave Kenora their first lead of the game. Evans rang one off the cross-bar out and of play, but five seconds later Deschamps deflected in Carter Theissen's point shot to tie the game at 18:19. Evans' wrap around attempt with seven seconds left in regulation was stymied by Kenora's James Sinclair to send it into overtime. Fort Frances had five shots in OT to Kenora's four. Josh Boyko's breakaway attempt was stopped by Koethler. Krentz clanged one off the cross-bar with four minutes gone for the Lakers' best chance, adding another off the post for good measure later in the overtime session. The Islanders killed off an overtime penalty to salvage the tie. Sinclair stopped 49 of 52 in the Islanders' net, while Koethler made 32 saves. Wood added an assist for a two-point night for the Lakers. Fort Frances was 1-7 on the powerplay. Kenora was scoreless in five chances. Kenora took 30 of 54 penalty minutes assessed. |
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 | AT IRONWOOD LUMBERJACKS |  | ||
| The Lumberjacks skated to 2-0 and 3-1 leads, Red Lake rallied with four in the row in the second, Ironwood battled back to tie it 6-6 at 6:17 of the third, before Nathan Dann scored his second of the game at 17:06 to win it in regulation. The Lumberjacks christened the Pat O'Donnell Civic Center with a crowd of 313 watching an exciting back-and-forth contest. Jack Hanna's low shot beat Koen Webber at 1:39 of the first to get Ironwood on the board early. Julian Calcagnino converted a 2-on-1 opportunity 29 seconds later for a 2-0 Ironwood lead. Kai Hughes drew Red Lake to within a goal at 6:15. Chase Krtanjek stole the puck and went high glove for a 3-1 Lumberjacks lead through one. In the second period, highly touted newcomer Quinn Szpak kicked off a four-goal Red Lake barrage as he, Dann, Jason Grey and Hughes erased Ironwood's lead and created a two-goal Red Lake lead. Nolan Fowler and Hanna clicked to knot the score at five-all. Matthew MacPherson roofed a shot over Sam Keene's blocker with 34 seconds left to give the Miners a 6-5 lead heading into the third. In the third, Marshall Thomas rifled home a powerplay goal at 6:17 to tie the game at 6-6. Dann's game winner came at 17:06 after the Miners maintained the zone for a extended period. Dann's sniped high blocker side to provide the winning margin. Keene stoned Dann's hat trick bid with less than two minutes remaining. Ironwood went on a short powerplay with 16 seconds left but a scrum along the boards killed off the clock. Hughes and Dann had two goals each for the Miners, with Dann also adding two assists. MacPherson and Szpak had three points, Bryson Carlyle assisted on three and Dayden Collier added two helpers for Red Lake. Hanna had two goals for Ironwood. Josh Gulden had three assists, and Matteo Salvatore and Cooper Malkowski assisted on two goals apiece for the Lumberjacks. Koen Webber stopped 20 shots for the Miners' win, while Keene faced 35 in a losing cause. Ironwood was 2-6 on the powerplay. Red Lake was 1-3. |
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| Noah Tenney's second goal of the game at 6:08 of overtime gave the visiting Miners a 4-3 win in Ironwood. Nathan Dann's third period tally at 12:41--his third goal of the season--tied the game at 3-3. The Lumberjacks blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 en route to their second tough loss of the season. They did garner their first point. Red Lake sits in a first place tie with Sioux Lookout. The Lumberjacks scored back-to-back backhander goals from in close to stake their 2-0 lead. Collin Baker scored at 7:24 and Marshall Braunscheidel doubled the margin at 15:29. Less than a minute later Jack Croghan cut the lead in half, accepting a goal-mouth feed from Tenney and burying it past Kole Kronstedt before the first period ended. Tenney scored the lone second period marker, collecting a rebound on a Miners' powerplay to tie the game at 2-all. Morgan Pevie put the Lumberjacks ahead 3-2 with a powerplay goal at 8:44 of the third, collecting a rebound and backhanding one past Koen Webber. Less than three minutes later Dann notched his second of the game, a slapper over Kronstedt's glove, to tie it. Both teams had chances in regulation time to end it. In overtime, Webber made several great saves to keep the Miners alive. With 52 seconds left, Tenney backhanded a puck over Kronstedt's pad to end it. Final shots were 47-37 in favour of Red Lake. The Miners were 1-2 on the powerplay while Ironwood was 1-3. Tenney had two goals and assist giving him a league-leading five points on the year. Nolan Fowler had a pair of assists for Ironwood. A total of 10 penalty minutes were called, with three minors going to the Miners. A crowd of 226 attended. |
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 | AT SIOUX LOOKOUT BOMBERS |  | ||
| Mathew Spencer-Dahl stopped 31 shots for a shutout and Sioux Lookout scored twice in both the first and second periods for a 4-0 win over visiting Thunder Bay. Ty Lone scored from a sharp angle at 2:13 to open the scoring. Aaron Bertschinger fired the puck from the blue-line, and Jonah Smith capitalized on a rebound as the Bombers doubled their lead to 2-0 at 16:39. Sioux Lookout's Owen Cotter and Bertschinger had second period tallies to account for the final score. Cotter deflected home a Tait Howell shot at 1:08, and Bertschinger slid a change-up under Keenan Marks pads at 16:21 for the 4-0 lead. The third period was scoreless. Marks stopped 47 of 51 for Thunder Bay. All of the goals were even strength goals. Thunder Bay was 0-3 on the powerplay while Sioux Lookout was 0-1. A couple of coincidental minor penalties raised the penalty total to 34 minutes overall. Thunder Bay took 22 of them. Bertschinger was only player to collect more than a point, adding an assist. Attendance was 308. |
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| The Bombers took a 4-3 decision on Saturday for a weekend sweep and a share of first place. Ex-North Star defenceman Garren Voisey garnered first star status with a goal and assist. Matthew Ofukany made 44 stops in the Bomber cage, while Ben Laurette stopped 38 of 42 for the Stars. Voisey was the lone marksman in the first stanza. His floater from the point on a Bomber powerplay at 14:55 gave Sioux Lookout a 1-0 lead. The second period featured four goals and a pair of lead changes. Beau Helmeczi's one-timer tied the score at 54 seconds. Alex Remenda gave Thunder Bay a 2-1 lead at 15:06 on a feed from Matthew Lysak. Alex Lucas scored at 16:42, whacking Tait Howell's mid-air pass past Laurette. Kaden Veller struck seven seconds into a Bomber powerplay, wristing one in from the high slot at 18:59, to re-establish the Bombers' one-goal lead. Jonah Smith made it 4-2 at 37 seconds of the third, rolling one off the back of Laurette and in. Thunder Bay pulled Laurette with 3:12 to go. Carter Anton draw the Stars to within one with 2.7 seconds left in the game to account for the final score. Thunder Bay was 0-5 on the powerplay while Sioux Lookout was 2-6. The Bombers took 22 penalty minutes to Thunder Bay's 20. A crowd of 344 enjoyed the action. |
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 | AT KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE |  | ||
| Dryden fired 45 shots but Ashton Sadauskas stopped 43 of them as the Fighting Walleye defeated Dryden 5-2 before 712 fans at Norwest Arena. Amar Powar snapped home a bad angle shot midway through the first to open the scoring. Nico Simeoni doubled the lead on a face-off win on a Kam River powerplay at 18:04. Emmanuel Nkombou scored on a shorthanded rebound as the Ice Dogs narrowed the lead to one entering the second frame. Kam River upped their lead to 4-1 after two. Nicholas Fagnilli was wide open and beat Braxton Castagno on a Kayden Ostrom feed on a Kam River powerplay for a 3-1 lead at 33 seconds, and Tie Schumacher finished off a tic-tac-toe with Jett Mintenko and Easton Debray at 7:51. The teams exchanged third period goals Max Wright made it 5-1 with Kam's third powerplay marker of the game, jamming home a loose puck from in tight at 7:53. Max Roby converted a cross-ice pass at 10:00 to close out the scoring. The win handed Fighting Walleye head coach Dwight Lee his first SIJHL win, while handing Dryden's Jake Gushue his first loss. Sadauskas secured his first win of the year. Castagno stopped 24 of 29 in the Dryden cage. Powar added an assist and Carter Poddubny had a pair of helpers to lead the Walleye. Kam River was 3-6 on the powerplay while Dryden was 1-6 with a shorty for good measure. |
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| Max Roby scored twice and Kellan Mooney recorded his first SIJHL win with a 35-save effort as the Ice Dogs evened their record at 1-1 with a 4-1 win before 460 fans at Norwest Arena. Head coaches Jake Gushue and Dwight Lee switched results with Gushue collecting his first win and Lee his first defeat behind their respective benches. Roby dashed in from the Dryden blue-line on a Walleye turnover and slipped one five-hole through Travis Vanderzwaag's pad for a 1-0 Dryden lead at 6:15 of the first. Max Wright replied at 10:55 of the period, firing a Carter Poddubny rebound past Mooney on a Kam River powerplay at 10:55. Roby's second marker and third of the year re-established Dryden's one-goal edge. He tucked his shot past a screened Vanderzwaag on a Dryden powerplay at 13:31. Dryden's Carson Devine notched the lone goal of the second period. His wrister from the point at 7:13 on Dryden's second powerplay opportunity made it 3-1. Eli Antoine added an insurance tally at 16:02 of the third to close out the scoring. McLaren Paulsen collected a secondary assist on the play, his fourth helper of the young season. Kam River outshot Dryden 36-34. The Ice Dogs were 2-4 while Kam River was 1-5 on the powerplay. |
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