Ironwood and Kenora split over the weekend as a number of winning and losing streaks wiped the slate clean entering Week 12.
The North Stars are on a three-game winning streak, Sioux Lookout has a pair of consecutive wins, the Lakers lost a pair to Thunder Bay over the weekend. The rest of the league has a recent win or loss. The SIJHL is quickly approaching the midway point of the 2024-25 regular season.
Dryden split with Kam River, giving them 37 points on the year. McLaren Paulsen leads the league in production with 46 points in 23 games–the only player averaging two points a game. Four other Ice Dogs grace the top-10. Carson Devine, Max Roby, Payton Hu and Eli Antoine are the other main offensive drivers, with Emmanuel Nkombou occupying 13th spot.
Kellan Mooney leads the triple-crown goalie stats with 11 wins, a 2.24 GAA and .928 SV%. He has a further distinction–most shutouts (two).
Second place Sioux Lookout is five points back with two games in hand. The Bombers have allowed 58 goals, least in the league. Alex Lucas has 31 points to lead the team, while Jonah Smith has 21.
Matthew Ofukany has nine wins and a loss, with a 2.29 GAA and .924 SV%.
On the minus side, the improving Bomber play is trundling along at 14.1%. The penalty kill is above league average at 83.5%.
Thunder Bay has a tough run, playing Red Lake at home Monday and Tuesday for a four-games-in-five-nights stretch. They won against Fort Frances Friday and Saturday to complete half the job.
The Stars offence is clicking along with 116 goals in 21 games, a league-leading 5.52 goals per game pace.
Six Stars are in the top-20, led by Tyler Jordan’s 33 points. Beau Helmeczi, Alex Remenda, rookie Evan Simeoni, defenceman Tag Bryson and Cohen Tangedal round out a balanced attack. Bryson has one goal and 25 assists. Tangedal is out with an ankle injury suffered in Friday’s game.
Ben Laurette is 9-3-0 with a 2.69 GAA and .917 SV%. Keenan Marks is 5-3-1/2.98/.911. The penalty kill is still above 90 per cent–90.8 to be exact.
Kam River is a point behind Thunder Bay, five points ahead of Fort Frances. The Fighting Walleye are the third team to crest 100 goals.
Jett Mintenko is second in league scoring (13G, 25A, 38 Pts). Daxton Lang has 35 points. Kaden Goodwin holds down spot 19 with 24 points.
Ashton Sadauskas holds the fort in net, second in minutes with 888. He’s 10-5-0.
Kam River is third in power play proficiency with a 26.3% rating.
The Lakers are 9-8-5 over their 22 games, ahead of their rebuild schedule of three to five years, according to third-year bench boss Tyler Miller. Gunner Paradis is 5-3-0 in his age-20 year, gaining confidence with each start. Rookie Nolan Koethler is 4-5-1.
The Lakers have a 29.3% power play, one of the key reasons they’re north of .500. Captain Brady Krentz, in his third year as a Laker, recently celebrated his 100th game and 100th career point. He has 25 points in 22 games this year. Jack Wood has 11 goals and nine assists.
Red Lake is 10-9-2, one point behind the Lakers with a game in hand. The Miners are +4 in goal differential.
Nathan Dann paces the attack with 14 goals and 27 points–the only Miner in the top-20 (15th). Rookie Quinn Szpak is averaging exactly one point per game.
Ethan Rau has a .500 log in net (2-2-1) with a 2.91 GAA and .899 SV%. Rookie Koen Webber checks in at 6-2-0.
The Miners are the only team that has not allowed a shorthanded goal this season.
Ironwood drubbed the Islanders at home to end their winless streak and to secure their first home ice win. Their 24 games played are one shy of the halfway point of the regular season.
Newcomer Trent Boryszczuk will likely absorb more minutes in net. League ironman Kole Kronstedt has 1,000-plus minutes in the books.
Marshall Thomas has had a monster season, sitting seventh in league scoring with 34 points. Nolan Fowler has 21 points in 22 contests. The ‘Jacks sport the fourth best power play at 24.1%.
Kenora avenged their 8-1 Friday loss against Ironwood with a 4-2 Saturday night win. Ethan Beattie stopped 45 of 47 to snare the victory.
The penalty kill has improved of late, and the penalty minutes have dropped recently as well. Josh Boyko should return to the line-up shortly. He and Gursimar Mann are the two Islanders with 10 or more points.
A Monday game, two on Tuesday, two on Friday and three on Saturday highlight Week 12. A Dryden at Thunder Bay Saturday night tilt is a must watch.
 | VS/AT SIOUX LOOKOUT BOMBERS |  | ||
| Ty Kirk converted a Red Lake turnover less than a minute into overtime as the visiting Sioux Lookout Bombers defeated the Miners 3-2 at Cochenour Arena. Matthew Ofukany ran his regular season record to 9-1-0, stopping 25 of 27, while losing goaltender Ethan Rau secured a point making 38 saves in the Red Lake net. Kirk's strike was the only shot in overtime. The Bombers climbed to 30 points, five points behind Dryden, with two games in hand. The Miners extended their points streak to seven games with the overtime point. Corbyn Demchuk staked the Miners to a 1-0 first period lead at 16:41, going over Ofukany's shoulder. A non-icing call led to Owen Cotter's game tier at 10:49 of the second. The Miners defence anticipated a whistle, relaxed, and Cotter took advantage. The teams exchanged third period goals. Red Lake's Jager Marshall collected his third of the year on a backhander. Noah Tenney and Bryson Carlyle collected assists on the goal. Owen Riffel displayed a nice scoring touch, dodging a pair of Red Lake defenders for his 9th of the year at 13:32 to tie the score at 2-2. Kirk snared a loose puck at the Red Lake blue line to score unassisted at 48 seconds of extra time for the game winner. Four of the five goals scored in the game were unassisted. Ofukany lowered his goals against to 2.29 with the win. Rau improved his save percentage to .921 but took the overtime loss. Both teams were scoreless on the power play. Sioux Lookout took three of the five minor penalties whistled down. |
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| Alex Lucas scored three goals and added an assist, and Matthew Spencer-Dahl stopped 34 of 38, as the hometown Bombers took a 6-4 decision to sweep the weekend home-and-home series. Jonah Smith also had a four-point night for Sioux Lookout. The Bombers are five points back of first place Dryden with two games in hand. Red Lake held leads of 2-1 and 3-2. Jonah Smith opened the scoring at 5:59 of the first, tipping in Lucas' pass for a 1-0 Bomber lead. Noah Tenney and Nathan Dann answered for Red Lake. Tenney connected on Spencer-Dahl's doorstep for his fifth of the campaign. Dann scored his first of two from the slot 46 seconds later on a Red Lake power play. Lucas' unassisted effort at 13:14 knotted the score at 2-all entering the second frame. Gabe Tanton's unassisted power play marker at 6:01 of the second gave the Miners a 3-2 lead. Owen Riffel tied it midway through the period, tipping Kaden Veller's shot past Ethan Rau. Sage Roberts put the Bombers ahead 4-3 with an under-the-cross-bar snipe at 18:27 on the power play. Lucas clicked on breakaway at 5:04 of the third for a two-goal Sioux Lookout edge. Dann's one-timer, his 14th on a feed from Noah Tenney, made it a one-goal game. Lucas' hat trick marker at 12:20, a top shelf one-timer, finished off the scoring. Spencer-Dahl improved to 6-4-0. Rau evened his record to 2-2-1. Red Lake took 24 of 46 penalty minutes. The Miners power play was 2-2, while the Bombers went 1-8. The Hangar drew 369 fans. |
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 | AT/VS KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE |  | ||
| Kam River took game one of the home-and-home with Dryden, scoring three power play goals in the third for a convincing 6-1 win over the Ice Dogs. Ashton Sadauskas secured his 10th win, stopping 26 of 27 shots, to tie Dryden's Kellan Mooney atop the SIJHL leaderboard. Kam River's Sam Sargent scored the lone first period goal on a re-direct at 15:29. Jordan Wales clicked on a one-timer moments after the Ice Dogs killed off a five-on-three to tie the game at 8:06 of the second. Daxton Lang put the Walleye up to stay, converting Kaden Goodwin's pass at 12:54 of the middle frame. Zach Baumann's shorthanded tally at 16:25 made it 3-1. Jett Mintenko, Carter Poddubny and Carter Nailen added three third period power play markers starting with Mintenko's 13th at 12:53. Poddubny scored his ninth on the doorstep. Nailen's one-timer nailed down the verdict as the Walleye fired 20 shots at Braxton Castagno in the final stanza. Final shots favoured Kam River 41 to 27. Castagno fell to 7-3-1 while Sadauskas rose to 10-4-0, with a 2.75 goals against and .911 save percentage. Four Walleye players had two points. Mintenko, Lang and Poddubny had a goal and assist each. Goodwin recorded two helpers. Kam River made inroads on Dryden's league-best 32.4% power play, killing off four Ice Dogs power plays while going 3-7 with a shorty to boot. Dryden took 31 of 53 penalty minutes. A total of 658 fans packed Norwest Arena. |
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| Dryden avenged Friday's loss with a shutout win on Saturday. Kellan Mooney won his 11th of the year, out-dueling Kam River counterpart Ashton Sadauskas for the win. Dryden outshot the Walleye 49-30. After a scoreless first period, Payton Hu struck 30 seconds into the second on a Dryden power play. Hu deflected Carson Devine's shot past Sadauskas to break the ice. Devine has 26 helpers on the year, and Roby got his 17th assist on the play. Devine, Hu and Roby sit third, fourth and fifth in league scoring. Evan Mayer struck two minutes into the third, scoring unassisted, with help from the lively Dryden backboards that sent the puck back his way. Devine added an empty netter with 43 seconds left to seal the deal. Mooney leads the league in wins (11), GAA (2.24) and SV% (.928). He became the only SIJHL goalie this year to record two shutouts. The Walleye took 36 of 62 penalty minutes. Kam River was 0-8 with the man advantage, while the Ice Dogs were 1-8. The game drew 392 fans. |
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 | AT THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS |  | ||
| Thunder Bay rallied from two-one goal deficits to defeat the Fort Frances Lakers 4-2 before 631 fans at Fort William Gardens. Evan Kabel popped the water bottle behind Ben Laurette to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead at 6:39 of the first period. Evan Simeoni banked one off Lakers' Gunner Paradis at 1:08 of the second to knot the score at one-all. The Stars allowed their sixth power play goal against when Pierce Gouin re-directed Brady Krentz' shot at 13:08 for a 2-1 Lakers lead. It was all Thunder Bay after that. Marcellus Francis tied it 42 seconds later. Francis went top shelf off a face-off win for his 11th. Max Buffone's slap shot rocket from the point--his first goal of the season--put Thunder Bay ahead to stay at 15:02 of the middle frame. Stars' forward Cohen Tangedal was hit hard by Carter Thiessen at the end of the second, leaving the game aided by teammates after a prolonged stay on the ice. Eric Sheriff added an insurance marker at 11:41 of the third, ripping home a low glove-side snipe for his fifth of the campaign to round out the scoring. The Lakers pulled Paradis for an extra man but could not close the gap. The Stars outshot Fort Frances 48-25. Laurette secured his ninth win against three losses. Thunder Bay native Paradis saw his record drop to 5-3-0, despite lowering his save percentage to .927. Francis added an assist and Beau Helmeczi had two assists for the Stars. Kabel had a two-point night for Fort Frances. The Lakers had the lone power play goal going 1-6. Thunder Bay was 0-6 with the man advantage. |
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| Thunder Bay swept the weekend series with Fort Frances. Two goal performances from Evan Simeoni, Alex Remenda and Tyler Jordan propelled the Stars to a 6-3 win over the Lakers on Saturday. Jordan added two assists to sit alone at 8th in league scoring with 33 points. Keenan Marks played all but 13 seconds, shunting aside 38 of 40 shots, picking up his fifth win while dropping his goals against to 2.98. North Star Defenceman Spencer Gryba kept the puck in the zone with a diving effort, the move eventually paying off with Simeoni's 13th goal of the year at 13:50 of period one. Marcellus Francis' collected his 10th assist of the year. Thunder Bay scored three of the four second period goals to open up a 4-1 edge. Alex Remenda's wrist shot got through Nolan Koethler, laying on the goal line until Remenda tapped it over at 1:48 to double the Stars' lead to 2-0. Simeoni polished off a tic-tac-toe with Marcellus Francis and Acoyen Fehr at 18:31 to make it 3-0. Jack Wood replied for the Lakers just 17 seconds later, corralling a loose puck in Marks' crease to cut the lead to 3-1. Jordan scored from the slot on a backhand behind-the-net pass from Beau Helmeczi at 19:36 to restore the three-goal margin. The teams traded four third period goals. The Stars got the first two to put the game away. Jordan got his 16th and Remenda his 14th. Fort Frances struck for two late ones. Captain Brady Krentz scored on his own rebound at 16:03. Marks got a ten-minute misconduct with 13 seconds left, essentially for chirping, sending in an ice cold Ben Laurette to finish off the game. With four seconds left Wood got his second of the game, 11th of the year, on a Lakers' power play to finish off the scoring. Three North Stars, aside from Jordan, chipped in with two assists each: Fehr, Jamieson Franz and Francis. Koethler took the loss for the Lakers, facing 42 shots. A total of 74 penalty minutes were called, 38 to Fort Frances. Thunder Bay was 1-8 with the man advantage while Fort capitalized on one of seven chances. Stars forward Cohen Tangedal will be out for a while as his injured ankle from Friday's came continues to heal. The Stars play Monday and Tuesday at home against Red Lake. A fine crowd of 581 witnessed Saturday's contest. |
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 | AT IRONWOOD LUMBERJACKS |  | ||
| Ironwood ended an extended winless streak and won at home for the first time this year, defeating the Kenora Islanders 8-1 before 325 patrons at the Pat O'Donnell Civic Center. Trent Boryszczuk evened his record to 3-3-1 with 37 saves. His .920 save percentage is among the league leaders. The Lumberjacks put the run on Islanders' netminder Ethan Beattie early, scoring three goals on five shots before the game was four minutes old. Nolan Fowler scored at the 47-second mark on a one-timer, Matteo Salvatore scored shorthanded at 2:12, and Marshall Thomas notched his 11th at 3:54--tying him with Fowler for the team lead in goals--to create the 3-0 lead. Kenora's James Sinclair came on in relief of Beattie. The Lumberjacks pumped in three more in the second. Salvatore added his second of the game. Collin Baker and Jack Hanna hiked the score to 6-0. Konnor Sapp broke Boryszczuk's shutout bid at 5:03 of the third. Hudson Favreau collected his first assist of the year on the play. Aidan Charron added two more Lumberjack goals 17 seconds apart in the latter stages to round out the scoring. James Sauer collected his first assist of the year on Charron's first goal. Thomas continued his stellar season, adding four assists to reach 33 points and 7th in league scoring. Charron added two assists, Baker and Hanna had three points, Fowler added a helper, and Chase Krtanjek had two assists to key the Ironwood onslaught. Ironwood was 1-2 on the power play while killing off all five Kenora chances. |
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| Kenora rebounded for a 4-2 road win against Ironwood on Saturday. Ethan Beattie atoned for Friday's early pull, stopping 45 of 47 shots for his first win of the year. Keestin Danielson fired in a one-timer past Ironwood's Kole Kronstedt at 43 seconds of the first. Aidan Charron's top shelf snipe at 11:56 tied it. Hayden Seib's breakaway and subsequent deke of Kronstedt at 18:26 gave the Islanders a 2-1 edge through 20 minutes. The second period was scoreless. Elijah Constant increased Kenora's lead to two at 1:09 of the third, squeaking a long shot past Kronstedt for his second of the year. Marshall Thomas' spin-a-rama move at 7:05 tightened the score to 3-2. Thomas has 12 goals and 22 assists on the year. Kenora captain Tallen Caron iced the game with two seconds left on a Kenora power play. Islanders' special teams excelled in this one, killing off eight minor penalties while going 1-2 on the power play. Ironwood took just two minor penalties. Kronstedt shouldered the Ironwood loss, making 17 stops. Both teams snapped long winless droughts with weekend wins. |
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