Red Lake stands as the SIJHL’s only undefeated SIJHL team at 3-0-0. Also tied in first place with six points are 3-1-0 Kam River and 3-1-0 Sioux Lookout. A pair of wins evened Thunder Bay’s record at 2-2-0, tied with Dryden who split with the Bombers. Fort Frances is 1-1-1 and in 6th place.
Ironwood and Kenora have a single point each.
Carter Poddubny of Kam River leads the league in points with nine. The Fighting Walleye had 25 goals for against Kenora. Four players–Nathan Dann of Sioux Lookout, Max Wright and Daxton Lang of Kam River and Emmanuel Nkombou of Dryden–have four goals each.
Dryden’s Kellan Mooney leads the league is save percentage and goals against, .956 and 1.39 respectively. Ashton Sadauskas of Kam River, rookie Koen Webber of Red Lake and Matthew Spencer-Dahl of Sioux Lookout have two wins each.
Next weekend features eight games. Thunder Bay at Red Lake for a pair would be a marquee match-up. Fort Frances and Kam River have a home-and-home series. Ironwood travels to Dryden, and Sioux Lookout ventures to Kenora.
 | VS/AT FORT FRANCES LAKERS |  | ||
| Red Lake extended their winning streak to three, with a hard fought win at Cochenour Arena. Euan Morrison was Red Lake's top gun with a goal and three assists in his first game of the year. Morrison played for Kam River two years ago, plied his trade with the Melville Millionaires of the SJHL last year, making a big impact for the Miners in his debut. Bryson Carlyle, Nathan Dann and Quinn Szpak had a goal and assist each, and Bradyn Rowsell added a solo marker to round out the Red Lake attack. Brady Krentz had a goal and assist, Clark Scaddan had two helpers with Gavin Simon and Jack Wood adding a goal each. The Miners never trailed. Rowsell scored on a Morrison rebound at 13:19 for a 1-0 Red Lake lead. Brady Krentz tied the game on a Fort Frances powerplay, going high blocker over Trent Boryszczuk. Nathan Dann regained Miners' lead with blocker side snipe on Laker goaltender Gunner Paradis with 47 ticks left in first frame. The teams traded second period powerplay goals. Bryson Carlyle's slapper from the point upped Red Lake's lead to two. Jack Wood would reply for the Lakers with a high blocker side rip at 13:02. Szpak scored on a Miners' faceoff win from a tough angle to make it 4-2 for Red Lake. Gavin Simon's first of the year on a Fort Frances powerplay over Boryszczuk's pad reduced the lead to 4-3. Morrison's lone tally came on a redirect of a Carlyle point shot at 13:10. Boryszczuk made 34 saves for the win. Paradis stopped 35 of 40 in the Lakers' cage. Fort was 3-7 on the powerplay. Red Lake was 1-4. |
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| Saturday's game in Fort Frances was postponed due to travel issues. The game will be rescheduled for a future date. | ||||
 | AT IRONWOOD LUMBERJACKS |  | ||
| Thunder Bay pelted Kole Kronstedt with 67 shots, Eric Sheriff and Casey Rutland scored two goals each, Ben Laurette came within 37 seconds of a shutout and defenceman Carter Anton notched his first ever SIJHL goal launching a raucous celebration (especially for a 7-0 goal) as the North Stars defeated the Ironwood Lumberjacks 7-1. The Stars garnered their first win of the year. Ironwood fell to 0-2-1. Anton batted in his first goal in 89 regular season games plus 25 playoff games. The game was close until the latter stages of the third period. Sherriff potted two first period goals--the first on an odd-man rush, the second on a backhander--to give Thunder Bay a 2-0 edge. Beau Helmeczi's conversion of a Tyler Jordan feed on a Thunder Bay powerplay upped the ante to 3-0 after two periods. The Stars turned a tight game into a laugher with four straight in a span of 5:04. Casey Rutland started the barrage with two in a row at 13:39 and 16:46. Alex Remenda made it 6-0 at 17:03. Anton scored from the slot area at 18:43. The only suspense left was Laurette's shutout bid. Julian Calcagnino's shot fluttered over Laurette's blocker to get the Lumberjacks on the board with under a minute to go. Sheriff, Remenda and Anton added assists, and Peter Forester and Jordan had two helpers each for the Stars. Laurette stopped 26 of 27 while Kronstedt had 60 saves. Thunder Bay was 1-5 on the powerplay while holding off Ironwood's four chances. Wisconsin took seven of the 13 minor penalties assessed. Attendance was 289. |
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| While not an exact reproduction, Thunder Bay's 6-1 win on Saturday was very similar to Friday's game. Tyler Jordan had two goals and four points to lead the Stars. Keenan Marks made 28 saves for his first win of the season. Thunder Bay climbed to .500 while the 'Jacks fell to 0-3-1. Thunder Bay scored two in the first and two in the second to put the game on a solid footing. Alex Remenda scored at 4:32 and Evan Simeoni got his first ever SIJHL tally, a shorthanded one, at 9:15 of the initial stanza. Tag Bryson on a Stars' powerplay and Jordan doubled the lead to 4-0 by 11:21 mark. Julian Calcagnino registered his third of the year to break Marks' shutout bid at 11:55 of the third. Cohen Tangedal and Jordan scored at 16:38 and 18:06 to put the game away. Tangedal added two assists for three points overall. Tag Bryson tacked on a helper and Beau Helmeczi collected two apples to buoy the Stars attack. The Stars were 1-2 on the powerplay while Ironwood was 0-5. A total of 33 penalty minutes were called with the Lumberjacks taking 17 of them. |
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 | AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |  | ||
| Emmanuel Nkombou scored the game winner and pocketed an empty netter with 38 seconds left to give the Dryden Ice Dogs a 4-2 win over the Sioux Lookout Bombers. McLaren Paulsen gave the Ice Dogs a 1-0 first period lead, firing a low shot glove side past Matthew Spencer-Dahl at 7:25. Payton Hu notched his first of the year on a Dryden powerplay, converting a centering pass. Just 14 seconds later Tait Howell scored unassisted on a Dryden giveaway to shave the lead to one. Ty Kirk tied the game at 8:37 of the third, scoring Sioux Lookout's second unassisted goal. Nkombou, a 6-6, 230-lb forward from Montreal, scored a breakaway shorthanded marker at 15:32, sliding a shot under Spencer-Dahl's pad for a 3-2 Dryden lead. With the Bomber net empty, Nkombou scored on another breakaway to ice the contest at 19:22. Braxton Castagno secured the win with a 24-save effort. Spencer-Dahl stopped 30 of 33 in the loss. Paulsen also added an assist for a two-point game for Dryden. The Bombers went 0-8 on the powerplay, while Dryden was 1-4 with the man advantage. Dryden took 51 of 84 penalty minutes. A robust crowd of 675 cheered on. |
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| Sioux Lookout avenged their Friday loss with a 6-4 win in Dryden, before another fine crowd of 659. The Ice Dogs took an early lead. Payton Hu got his second in two games, scoring in tight over the shoulder of Matthew Spencer-Dahl at 2:04 of the first. Eli Antoine notched his second of the season midway through the initial frame, combining with Emmanuel Nkombou on a Bomber giveaway to double the lead. In between the Dryden goals Spencer-Dahl's sprawling glove save on Ryland Maier kept the Bombers in the game. The Bombers tied it before the period was out. Garren Voisey's point shot went under Braxton Castagno's blocker, and Alex Lucas deflection of a point shot on a 5-on-3 powerplay at 17:00 knotted the score at two-all. The Bombers outscored Dryden 2-1 in the second. Lucas got his second of the game scoring from the top of the slot blocker side and Ty Lone finished off a 2-on-1 to put the Bombers up by a pair. Dryden head coach Jake Gushue swapped out Castagno for Kellan Mooney after Lone's goal. Emmanuel Nkombou got his 4th of the year on a Dryden powerplay at 17:11 to make it 4-3. A stealthy Ty Kirk slipped behind Dryden's five forwards and scored shorthanded as the Bombers made it 5-3 at 1:38 of the third. McLaren Paulsen scored along the ice on a Dryden powerplay at 8:56 to cut the lead to one. The score stayed that way until late in the game. Defenceman Peter Zilkalns clear from deep in the Bomber zone found an empty net as the Bombers secured a weekend split with a 6-4 verdict. Zilkalns and Kirk had two point nights for Sioux Lookout. Nkombou added an assist to his goal and Carson Devine led all point producers with a three assist night for Dryden. Spencer-Dahl stopped 31 of 35 for the win. Kellan Mooney stopped 8 of 9 and was on the hook for the loss in his 26:02 of work. Starter Castagno had 21 saves and let in four in his 33:08 of net duty. Dryden took 34 of 52 penalty minutes. Sioux Lookout was 1-10 while Dryden was 2-9 on their respective powerplays. |
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 | AT KENORA DEVIL'S GAP ISLANDERS |  | ||
| Kam River handily defeated Kenora 9-2 in Kenora. Five Walleyes had multiple points, led by Alex Goodwin's goal and three assists. Carter Poddubny, Jett Mintenko and Max Wright had a goal and two assists each, and Daxton Lang had a goal and assist. Kam River led 2-1 after 20 minutes, before pumping in five unanswered second period goals to salt the game away. Josh Boyko countered with a pair for Kenora, scoring at 13:32 of the first and 1:37 of the third. Sam Sargent, Nicholas Fagnilli, Nico Simeoni and Jett Mintenko also tallied for Kam River. Shots on goal were unavailable at press time. Ashton Sadauskas picked up the win in net. Ethan Fechter shouldered the loss. Kenora took 50 penalty minutes to Kam River's 40 in a heavy, physical contest. Fagnilli's and Debray's goals were on the powerplay. |
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| As dominant a win for Kam River as Friday's game was, Saturday's tilt was even more so. Twelve Fighting Walleye had multi-point games led by hat tricks for Callum Halls (plus two assists for five points) and Daxton Lang. Carter Poddubny and Sam Sargent had two goals each, Amar Power had a goal and three assists, Tie Schumacher and Edwin Liang had solo goals and two assists each, Jett Mintenko had three helpers, Max Wright had a goal and assist, and Cayden Adams and Brodie McLeod had two assists each. Easton Debray was the other Kam River goal scorer. Only three skaters on Kam River's 18-man roster were held pointless. Travis Vanderzwaag picked up the win in net. Ethan Fechter took the hit, victimized on all 16 Fighting Walleye goals. Kam River took a 4-0 lead in the first, led 11-2 through 40, and poured in the last five. Penalty minutes were considerably down from Friday's affair. Kam River took three minors while Kenora had five minors and a 10-minute misconduct. |
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