Dryden enters the final two weeks of the SIJHL regular season with a six point lead over second place Kam River. Both teams have four games left.
Max Roby hit 60 points on the weekend with 27 goals and 33 helpers. McLaren Paulsen, Payton Hu and Carson Devine are seven, eight and nine in the scoring race with 54, 54 and 52 points respectively. Eli Antoine has 44 points.
Rock steady Kellan Mooney sports an 18-3-1 record, with a 2.39 GAA and league leading .929 SV% in net.
Dryden took over the lead in power play proficiency with a 27.7% rating. Their penalty kill has scored 10 shorties and has a 82.7% kill rate. The Ice Dogs square off at home against Sioux Lookout and Fort Frances in week 23. The Ice Dogs climbed to 14th place, up two spots, in the weekly CJHL ranking released on Monday, March 3rd.
Kam River kept their first place aspirations alive last week. The Walleye also have a four point cushion over third place Sioux Lookout.
The Walleye lead the SIJHL in goals for (218), fewest goals allowed (106), and goal differential (plus-112). They are 9-1-0 in their last 10.
Daxton Lang and Jett Mintenko are 1-2 in the scoring race. Lang has 32 goals and 47 assists for 79 points. Mintenko has 27 goals and 50 helpers for 77 points. Line mate Kaden Goodwin has 60 points. Carter Poddubny has 43 points.
Ashton Sadauskas leads all netminders in wins with 23, goal against average, 2.32, and minutes, 1,940. His .928 save percentage is .001 behind Dryden’s Kellan Mooney’s .929.
The Walleye power play is 25.8% and the PK unit is 84.4%.
Kam River has road games this week against Fort Frances and Sioux Lookout.
The Walleye were an honorable mention in this week’s CJHL rankings.
Sioux Lookout maintains a tenuous hold on third place, four points behind Kam River, one ahead of Thunder Bay.
Alex Lucas is one of six players to reach 60 points. He has 26 goals and 34 assists. Jonah Smith has 50 points. Owen Cotter, 38, rookie Brodie Wood, 31, Tait Howell, 30, and Kaden Veller, 30, are next in line. Veller’s 13 goals leads all defencemen.
Matthew Ofukany, 17-5-0/2.47/.914/1,360 and Matthew Spencer-Dahl, 12-7-2/2.66/.921/1,351, provide excellent goaltending.
The Bombers have a 16.5% PP and 80.4% PK.
Sioux Lookout travels to Dryden Friday and host Kam River Saturday.
Thunder Bay is a point out of third place with a game in hand on Sioux Lookout.
The Stars have six players in the top-20. Tyler Jordan leads the team in goals with 30 and points with 62. Defenceman Tag Bryson slots into the top-10 (10th) with 50 assists and a goal. He’s the top point producing rearguard in the SIJHL. Evan Simeoni, Beau Helmeczi, Marcellus Francis and Alex Remenda have 47, 46, 45 and 43 points respectively.
Keenan Marks will carry the torch in net. He’s currently 13-8-2/2.78/.926 in 1,511 minutes.
On special teams, the Stars have a 24.6% PP and 89.7% PK. The Stars have allowed just 15 power play goals while scoring four shorthanded. The next best team is Sioux Lookout with 31 goals against on the penalty kill.
The Stars line up at home against Red Lake for two games in week 23.
Fort Frances has a one point lead over Red Lake. The Miners have two games in hand.
Team captain Brady Krentz leads the team with 48 points, 20 of them goals. Pierce Gouin and Jack Wood have 34 points each. Defenceman Evan Kabel has 32. Wood leads the league in power goals with 12. Tie Schumacher rounds out the 30-point club with 30 in 37 games.
Rookie Nolan Koethler has been tending goal in the absence of Gunner Paradis. The ’06-born rookie is 7-12-1/3.80/.897 in 1,470 minutes.
The Lakers are number two in power play percentage at 27.2%. Their penalty kill is 78.7%.
The Lakers entertain Kam River Friday, and travel to Dryden on Saturday.
Red Lake has three wins and points in their five games. The Miners have a zero goal differential with 144 for and 144 against. Their winning percentage is .522. The league as a whole is .524.
Nathan Dann has 29 goals and 19 assists for 48 points and 12th place in the scoring race. Rookie Quinn Szpak has 39 points. Defenceman Bryson Carlyle and Euan Morrison have 31 points each.
In net, rookie Koen Webber is 10-6-2/3.02/.909 in 1,114 minutes. Nick Peters just joined the “qualified” goalies club with 620 minutes in net. Peters is 3-4-2/3.58/.886.
The Miners are 17.9% on the power play and 76.4% on the penalty kill. They have a league best two shorthanded goals allowed and one lone shorty on the year.
The Miners trek to Thunder Bay for a weekend pair.
Ironwood has three games left and will enjoy week 23 off.
Marshall Thomas is averaging a point a game with 43 points in 43 games. He has 18 goals. Matteo Salvatore has 31 points. Defenceman Josh Gulden has 27 points and Collin Baker and Aidan Charron both have 25 points each.
Kole Kronstedt had a 51-save performance against Sioux Lookout recently. The overtime 3-2 loss was one of his best performances of the year. Trent Boryszczuk is 6-13-1/3.87/.918 for the year.
Ironwood has a 20.7% PP and 65.6% PK. The Lumberjacks have 569 penalty minutes over the year, lowest in the league.
 | AT SIOUX LOOKOUT BOMBERS |  | ||
| Sioux Lookout picked up a valuable two points with a 2-0 win over visiting Fort Frances. Matthew Spencer-Dahl collected his 12th win and second shutout with a 23-save effort. Ty Love opened the scoring at 1:23 of the second frame after a scoreless first, going over the shoulder of Red Lake starter Nolan Koethler. Love's fifth was unassisted. Alex Lucas popped the water bottle midway through the third on Sioux Lookout power play. Owen Cotter and Sage Roberts collected the helpers on Lucas' team leading 26th of the year. Koethler was pulled for an extra man with 2:20 to go but the Lakers failed to score. Notably, Fort Frances had affiliated goalie Brady Cates instead of Gunner Paradis serving as back-up. The Lakers were 0-4 with the extra man while the Bombers went 1-6. A total of 13 minor penalties were called. The Lakers took seven of them. |
||||
 | AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |  | ||
| Dryden picked up two huge points in their bid to lock down first place, defeating the visiting Red Lake Miners 4-3 in overtime. Evan Mayer struck with just seven seconds left in overtime. Kellan Mooney made 39 saves. For their part, the Miners salvaged a point in their quest to take over fifth place Fort Frances. Landon van Engelen tied the game at 14:09 of the third. Red Lake outshot Dryden 18-4 in the first period, but couldn't solve Mooney. The Ice Dogs killed off 13 penalty minutes in the frame. After a scoreless first, the teams traded four second period goals. Dryden forward Payton Hu was leveled early in the middle session but returned to action and had a massive game. Hu scored the game's first goal at the 11-minute mark on a 2-on-1 with Max Roby. Van Engelen scored his first of two at 15:10, fighting off a check and firing a backhander past Mooney to tie it. Nathan Dann scored unassisted at 15:42, notching his 29th over Mooney's glove for a 2-1 Red Lake lead. Emmanuel Nkombou's 14th, coming off a face off win at 19:28, was a shifty backhand to forehand snipe tying it at 2-2. Max Roby gave Dryden a 3-2 lead at 7:41 of the third. The Ice Dogs' power play strike was Roby's 26th. Van Engelen's sixth of the year tied the game at 3-3 at 14:09. McLaren Paulsen of Dryden and Noah Tenney of Red Lake had premium scoring chances in overtime. Rylan Oatman kept the zone with time winding down, fed Mayer, who backhanded in his 13th for the win. Mooney secured his 19th win. Nick Peters, named the game's third star, had 24 saves for the Miners. Hu had three points and Roby added his 33d assist for Dryden. The Ice Dogs killed off seven penalties and were 2-6 with the man advantage. Dryden had 27 of 39 penalty minutes. Attendance was 463. |
||||
 | AT KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE |  | ||
| Ashton Sadauskas stopped 37 of 38 shots to lead the Kam River Walleye to a 4-1 win over the Thunder Bay North Stars. Top scorers Jett Mintenko and Daxton Lang chipped with two points each. The Walleye created some separation between the Stars and Sioux Lookout while keeping the first place Ice Dogs within range. All five goals were scored in the first and were at even strength. Callum Halls and Mintenko scored 32 seconds apart to stake the home side to a 2-0 lead. Halls point shot eluded Liam Letters at 3:18. Mintenko's 27th was a wrister on the glove side at 3:50. Matthew Lysak shaved the lead to one with an unassisted marker at 12:14. Lysak's shot along the ice beat Sadauskas was his ninth. Sam Sargent's 10th goal beat Letters high over the shoulder at 15:05. The Stars pulled Letters at that point. Letters stopped five of eight and absorbed the eventual loss. Lang's 29th came on a 2-on-1 with Mintenko. Mintenko sold the shot and then passed to a wide open Lang at 17:38 for the 4-1 lead. It was the only goal Thunder Bay's Keenan Marks was to let it. Marks stopped 20 of 21. After one lone minor penalty in the first, physical play picked up in the second. A major fracas at the end of the second netted Chance Loke of Thunder Bay a five minute major for head contact and the resulting game misconduct. In addition, one player from each team were assessed double minors to start the third. Five minor penalties were handed out in the third. The final tally was 17 penalty minutes to Thunder Bay, and 18 to Kam River. The Stars were 0-7 while up a man while the Walleye struck out on five attempts. Lang improved to 76 points on the year. Mintenko has 74. Tyler Jordan, held pointless, is third in league scoring with 62 points. The teams split the regular season series with four wins apiece. |
||||
| AT IRONWOOD LUMBERJACKS |  | ||
| Jonah Smith scored in overtime as the Bombers defeated the Lumberjacks 3-2 before 285 fans at the Pat O'Donnell Civic Center in Ironwood. The Bombers gained two important points while the 'Jacks--led by Kole Kronstedt's 51 saves--gained a point and established some playoff credibility heading into the second season. Ironwood's top gun opened the scoring at 4:27 of the second after a scoreless first. Marshall Thomas' 18th goal on Matteo Salvatore's 20th assist came on a 2-on-1. Owen Cotter tied it at 19:07 on a Sioux Lookout power play. Jack Hanna settled a bouncing puck, created a short breakaway and scored on a backhander to give the 'Jacks a 2-1 lead with 13 seconds left in the middle stanza. The game stayed 2-1 until Michael Casey's late power play strike at 18:01 of the third knotted the score at 2-2. Eventual winning goaltender Matthew Ofukany was pulled for an extra attacker at 17:11. The Bombers enjoyed 50 seconds of 6-on-4 action, with Casey's point shot getting past Kronstedt at 18:01. Sioux Lookout made a bombing run in overtime, outshooting the 'Jacks 8-2 in extra time. Smith's 15th, a high slot blocker side shot, came at 5:14 to settle the score. Brodie Wood's two assists for the Bombers led all point getters. Matthew Ofukany made 27 saves for his 17th win. The Bombers were 2-4 on the power play while shutting down three Lumberjacks opportunities. Ironwood had five minor penalties to Sioux Lookout's three. |
||||
| AT THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS | | ||
| Jarred Feist scored two goals to lead the North Stars to a crucial 3-2 win over Sioux Lookout before 230 fans at the Gardens. The Stars moved to within a point of the third place Bombers with a game in hand. Jonah Smith opened the scoring for Sioux Lookout, shoveling in a backhander after a couple of saves by North Stars' goaltender Keenan Marks. Smith got his 16th at 11:53 of the first. Thunder Bay took a 2-1 lead with a second period pair. Feist's first goal came on a 5-on-3 power play. Max Buffone's point shot went wide, but the deflection off the back boards went right to Feist, who buried his seventh from a tough angle midway through the period. Peter Forester gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 18:14. Forester made no mistake on Mathew Lysak's cross-ice pass to beat Bomber goaltender Matthew Spencer-Dahl. Feist struck at the eight second mark of the third period with the teams playing 4-on-4. Marcellus Frances' pass hit Feist on the tape. Feist buried his eighth. The North Stars needed the insurance. Sage Roberts scored with 34 seconds left in regulation and the Bomber net empty to narrow the lead to one. The comeback fell short. Marks stopped 25 of 27 to up his season record to 13-8-2, with a 2.78 GAA and .926 SV%. Spencer-Dahl saw his record drop to 12-7-2 with a 2.59 GAA and .923 SV%. Both teams had six minor penalties each. The Stars went 1-4 on the power play while killing off three Bomber opportunities. |
||||
| AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS | | ||
| Goaltending dominated as the visiting Lakers battled the first place Ice Dogs to a 3-3 draw before 329 fans at Dryden Memorial Arena. Nolan Koethler of Fort Frances stopped 41 of 44 shots. Kellan Mooney saved 39 of 42 for Dryden. Evan Mayer scored Dryden's 10th shorthanded goal of the season at 5:09 of the first period to open the scoring. Rylen Oatman doubled the lead at 8:17 of the second on a goal mouth feed from Mayer. Tie Schumacher's breakaway goal, his 12th, shaved the lead to 2-1. Max Roby's wrister on a Dryden power play re-established the two-goal edge at 12:34. Brady Krentz' pass found a wide open Ian Ness, who deposited his 13th to make it 3-2 entering the third. Emerson Evans' wrist shot blocker side beat Mooney at 10:50 to tie the game at 3-3. Neither team managed to score after that. Koethler robbed Mayer in overtime. Krentz had the best chance for the Lakers. Koethler's record climbed to 7-12-1 while Mooney's dropped to 18-3-1. Dryden was 1-4 on the power play while the Lakers were 0-2. Fort Frances took 19 of 34 penalty minutes. Eli Antoine of Dryden and Carter Deschamps of Fort Frances drew minor penalties seconds apart in overtime. |
||||
| AT KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE | | ||
| Kam River blew open a 2-1 deficit scoring six consecutive goals en route to a 7-2 victory over road weary Sioux Lookout in Sunday afternoon action at Norwest Arena. Daxton Lang notched a hat trick, giving him a league leading 32 goals on the year. He leads the SIJHL with 79 points. Jett Mintenko garnered assists on all three of Lang's goals giving him 77 points. Ashton Sadauskas made 33 saves to raise his record 23-9-0 with a 2.32 GAA and .928 SV%. The Bombers were playing their third game in 67 hours. The critical win gave the Walleye a four point lead over Sioux Lookout, five over Thunder Bay, in the battle for second place. The Walleye are six points behind Dryden for first. Owen Riffle opened the scoring at 4:52 of the first, registering his 15th after a couple of pokes at a loose puck. Callum Halls tied it at 12:34 on a Kam River power play--one of four power play goals by the Walleye. Jonah Smith scored unassisted with 10 seconds left, jamming in a loose puck for his 17th. The Walleye scored four unanswered goals in the second period, adding two more in the third. Lang scored at 4:53 and 7:33 to give Kam River a 3-2 lead. Amar Powar got his ninth 1:02 later. Lang notched his hat trick marker on the power play at 13:10 for a 5-2 edge. In the third, Poddubny got his 17th on a Walleye power play, and Sam Sargent closed out the scoring with his 11th at 12:59. Poddubny added an assist, and Easton Debray and Kaden Goodwin chipped in with two helpers each. Sioux Lookout starting goalie Matthew Ofukany let in four goals on 21 shots through 28:35 of ice time to take the loss. Matthew Spencer-Dahl let in three of 21 shots in relief. The Bombers uncharacteristically took 40 penalty minutes to Kam River's 14. The Walleye went 4-6 on the power play while shutting down two Bomber chances. A crowd of 645 attended. |
||||