Spots one through six are still up for grabs as the SIJHL enters the final week of the regular season.
Dryden has a pair of tough road games to secure the point they need to clinch first place. They play Red Lake on Tuesday and battle the North Stars on Saturday. The Ice Dogs have spent nearly the entire season in first place. The first place team gets a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
The Ice Dogs ended up ranked 13th in the latest CJHL Rankings released March 10th.
Max Roby leads the team with 28 goals and 62 points, one of seven players over 60 points. McLaren Paulsen, Payton Hu and Carson Devine has have 59, 57 and 54 points respectively. Eli Antoine has 45 points.
Kellan Mooney is second in the league with 19 wins.
The Ice Dogs have the SIJHL’s best power play with a 27.3% rating, and has penalty kill of 81.9%.
Kam River visits seventh place Ironwood for two weekend games. A Walleye sweep and two regulation losses by Dryden ties them for first place with 75 points. Kam River has a six game winning streak and are 9-1-0 in their last 10.
Kam River was an honourable mention in the final CJHL Rankings released Monday.
Daxton Lang leads the league with 33 goals and 82 points. Jett Mintenko has 29 snipes and 50 helpers for 79 points. Kaden Goodwin has 62 points. Carter Poddubny has 40 points on the year.
Ashton Sadauskas leads the league in wins with 24, goals against average, 2.34, save percentage, .927, and minutes, 2,000. Back-up Sam Keene has not lost any of his Kam River starts. The midseason acquisition is 7-0-0 as a Walleye.
Thunder Bay has three games left. Ironwood visits the Fort William Gardens on Tuesday. The Stars head down to Fort Frances on Friday, and host Dryden on Saturday.
The Stars have a game in hand on Sioux Lookout. The Bombers and Stars both have 65 points and 30 wins.
Tyler Jordan has 30 goals and 63 points–one of two players to reach 30. Defenceman Tag Bryson leads the SI in assists with 52. Rookie Evan Simeoni leads all rookies with 20 goals and 50 points. Marcellus Francis, 49, Beau Helmeczi, 46 and Alex Remenda, 45, round out the Stars in top-20.
Jarred Feist has 19 points in 14 games with 11 goals.
Keenan Marks is 13-8-3 in net. Liam Letters, 4-1-1, will serve in the back-up role.
Thunder Bay enjoyed a recent spate of power play goals, raising their efficiency to 26.2%. Their penalty kill is 88.3%, still best in the league.
Sioux Lookout travels to Red Lake for Friday and Saturday games to close out the regular season.
Alex Lucas leads the team in scoring with 61 points with 26 goals. Jonah Smith has 51 points. Owen Cotter has 40 points. Brodie Wood, 33, d-man Tait Howell, 32, fellow defenceman Kaden Veller, 31, and Owen Riffel, 30, are next in line. Howell’s 15 goals leads all rearguards. Veller has 13.
Matthew Ofukany is 17-6-0/2.45/.915/1,418 while partner Matthew Spencer-Dahl is 13-7-2/2.72/.919/1,411.
The Bombers have a PP of 17.2% and a PK of 80.6%.
Red Lake has three games left, one against Dryden on Tuesday and two against the Bombers on the weekend.
Nathan Dann has 29 goals and 20 assists for 49 points. Rookie Quinn Szpak has 40 points, defenceman Bryson Carlyle, 34, and Euan Morrison, 31.
Koen Webber, 10-7-2, and Nick Peters, 4-4-2, share net duties.
Red Lake has an 18.7% PP and 74.9% PK.
Fort Frances has 49 games played with the one tilt against the North Stars remaining. Captain Brady Krentz has 50 points to lead the squad. Pierce Gouin and Jack Wood have identical 15 goal 20 assists seasons so far. Wood has 12 power play goals to lead the league in that department. Evan Kabel and Tie Schumacher sit at 32 and 31 points respectively.
Gunner Paradis, 10-8-1, and rookie Nolan Koethler, 7-13-1, share the net.
The Lakers are number two in power play proficiency at 26.7%. The penalty kill operates at a 79.1% clip.
Ironwood travels to Thunder Bay Tuesday and entertains Kam River Friday and Saturday. A win or two would stand them in good stead come playoff time.
Marshall Thomas has 43 points in 43 games. Matteo Salvatore has 31 points. Defenceman Josh Gulden has 27 points, and Collin Baker and Aidan Charron both have 25 points each.
Trent Boryszczuk, 6-13-1/3.87/.918 and Kole Kronstedt, 2-18-2/5.49/.876 tend net.
The Lumberjacks have an 18.1% PP and 65.6% PK.
 | AT THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS |  | ||
| Red Lake scored two goals late in the third to tie it, and Bryson Carlyle notched his 10th on a Red Lake power play at five minutes of overtime to win it, as the Miners took a 6-5 decision over the North Stars before 397 fans at the Gardens. Kai Hughes got the Miners off to a good start, connecting on his eighth at 9:22 of the first. Thunder Bay responded with the only three goals of the second frame. Jamieson Franz and Connor Larrett scored 33 seconds apart early in the period, and Jarred Feist scored his ninth halfway through for a 3-1 Thunder Bay lead. The teams traded two goals each by 12:44 of the third. Matthew MacPherson tightened the score to 3-2. Larrett's second of the game and eighth of the year restored the two-goal edge on a Stars' power play. MacPherson's second of the game and seventh of the year cut the lead to 4-3 on a Miners' man advantage. Alex Remenda's 22nd of the campaign had the Stars up 5-3 with 7:16 to go in regulation. Foxx McColl's second of the year reduced the lead to one at 17:44. Noah Tenney completed the regulation comeback with goalie Nick Peters pulled for an extra attacker at 19:09. Landon van Engelen of Red Lake and Franz were flagged for coincidental minor penalties at 4:34 of overtime. Evan Simeoni of Thunder Bay took an interference minor 13 seconds later. Carlyle scored the game winner 13 seconds into the man advantage with an assist going to Quinn Szpak. The game had huge implications for both squads. Red Lake climbed ahead of Fort Frances for fifth place, and the Stars fell two points back of the Bombers for third. MacPherson added an assist for a three point night and Carlyle had two helpers for three points for the Lakers. Corbyn Demchuk had two assists for Red Lake. Larrett added an assist for Thunder Bay for three points. Feist, Remenda and Franz had a goal and assist each, and Marcellus Francis had two assists. Nick Peters grabbed the win in net, stopping 28 of 33. Marks made 30 saves in the loss. The Miners were 2-4 on the power play while Thunder Bay went 1-2. Thunder Bay took six of the 10 minor penalties handed out. |
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| Peter Forester had a hat trick and Jarred Feist fired in two and assisted on another pair as the North Stars climbed into a share of third place with a convincing 9-2 win over Red Lake. The Miners remained in fifth place by a point. The Miners have a one-point lead for fifth place over the Lakers with a game in hand. The Stars held period leads of 3-1 and 5-2 before a four goal outburst inflated the final to 9-2. Marcellus Francis found Feist wide open in the slot for an early 1-0 Thunder Bay lead less than a minute in. Matthew Lysak doubled the lead at 14:40 on a breakaway. Corbyn Demchuk made it 2-1 two minutes later, but Francis' power play strike at 18:21 restored the two-goal margin. Ryan Heuser's seventh goal--a power play marker midway through the second period--narrowed the lead to one. Forester on a Stars' power play, and Feist unassisted, upped the Thunder Bay lead to 5-2. Those two goals came just nine seconds apart. Evan Simeoni reached the 20-goal plateau with an unassisted marker 1:39 to kick off the third. Connor Larrett and Forester, with his hat trick (10th of the year) 17 seconds apart, both on the power play, made it 8-2. Acoyen Fehr's ninth with 18 seconds left capped the barrage. Thunder Bay was 4-6 on the power play. Red Lake was 1-5. The Miners took seven minor penalties to Thunder Bay's six. Larrett and Simeoni added assists. Three North Stars--Tag Bryson, Jamieson Franz and Francis--had two helpers each. Liam Letters improved to 4-1-1 with the 29-save win. Koen Webber was on the hook for all nine goals, dropping his record to 10-7-2. Final shots favoured the Miners 31 to 29. Attendance was 468. |
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 | AT FORT FRANCES LAKERS |  | ||
| Kam River climbed to within four points of first place with a 4-3 win over Fort Frances. Zach Baumann broke a 3-3 tie with the lone goal of the third period, scoring his eighth--unassisted at 3:26--for the game winner. The Walleye outshot the Lakers 47-17. The teams exchanged four first period goals. Edwin Liang's long pass sent Carter Nailen in on a breakaway. Nailen's 10th at 3:15 gave the Walleye a 1-0 lead. Brady Krentz tied it 53 seconds later with a high glove side strike over Ashton Sadauskas' glove for his 21st. Jett Mintenko's 28th of the year on a re-direct of a Daxton Lang shot put Kam River up 2-1 at 6:23. Lang garnered his league-leading 80th point on the play. Kaden Goodwin collected the secondary assist. Hunter McLean notched his second of the year on 2-on-1 with Carter Deschamps at 9:37 to knot the score at 2-all. The teams exchanged second period goals. Noah McPherson drove the net for his fifth of the year at 13:06 to give the Lakers a 3-2 edge. Nailen's second of the game and 11th of the year on a rocket over Koethler's glove tied the game at 3-3 entering the third. Baumann clicked on a rebound at 3:26 to provide the winning margin. Koethler was pulled with 2:08 left. The Walleye had a pair of empty net chances. The Lakers mounted no real threats in the waning moments. Sadauskas claimed his league-leading 24th win, stopping 16 of 19. Koethler faced 40 Walleye shots in the loss. Both teams were 0-2 on the power play. Attendance was 418. |
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 | AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |  | ||
| Sioux Lookout built a 5-2 lead, weathering a late Dryden comeback, to win 5-4 before 887 fans at Dryden Memorial Arena. The Bombers hold a slim two-point lead over Thunder Bay in the battle for third place. Dryden's lost a chance to clinch first. The Ice Dogs struck at 21 seconds of the first frame on Elias Eisenbarth's 10th of the year. Sioux Lookout scored three of the four second period goals. The Bombers scored back-to-back power play goals 42 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead. Tait Howell's one-timer, and Sage Roberts 13th on a rebound put the visitors ahead. Max Roby's drove past a Bomber defender and scored from close range to tie the game at 11:34. Owen Riffel put Sioux Lookout ahead 3-2 with his 16th on a re-direct of Ty Kirk's shot. Sioux Lookout scored the first two goals of the third to take a three-goal lead. Tait Howell rumbled out of the penalty box in time to score his 15th with a top shelfer over Kellan Mooney's glove. Roberts got his second of the game, cashing in on a loose puck at 13:02 on a Bombers' power play to make it 5-2. The Ice Dogs weren't done yet, however. Carson Devine converted McLaren Paulsen's centering pass for his 16th at 15:15 on the power play. Karson Kerbes' howitzer with a minute to go and the Dryden net empty beat Matthew Spencer-Dahl to shave the lead to one. Mooney vacated the cage again with 42 seconds left but the 'Dogs could not find the equalizer. Spencer-Dahl stopped 22 of 26 for the win, improving his record to 13-7-2. Mooney made 42 saves, losing his fourth against 18 wins and a OT loss. Sioux Lookout struck for three power play goals in seven attempts. Dryden was 1-4. The Ice Dogs blazed a trail to the sin bin, taking 34 of the 42 penalty minutes assessed. |
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| AT SIOUX LOOKOUT BOMBERS | | ||
| The Fighting Walleye kept their hopes for a first place finish alive with a 2-1 regulation time win over the Bombers before 364 fans at the Hangar. The Walleye are four points back with two games left. A single Dryden point in its remaining two games will punch the Ice Dogs' ticket to a first round bye. After a scoreless first, Kam River netted a pair of goals in the second. Daxton Lang got his 33rd of the year on a 2-on-1 with Kaden Goodwin at 4:45. Jett Mintenko gained the slot area and netted his 29th at 19:47. Cayden Adams and Lang drew assists. Owen Cotter added considerable suspense to the proceedings, scoring at 16:22 of the third to make it 2-1. Sam Keene made the original save on a Jonah Smith shot from in close, but Cotter collected the loose puck and scored his 14th. Sioux Lookout pulled starter Matthew Ofukany for an extra attacker with 1:56 left in regulation. Kam River iced the puck multiple times to help kill the clock. Keene made 29 stops to improve his record to 7-4-0 on the year. Ofukany shunted aside 29 of 31, dropping to 17-6-0. The Walleye took all three of their minor penalties in the second period. Sioux Lookout drew three minors in the third. |
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| AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS | | ||
| Dryden scored two goals in each period to defeat Fort Frances 6-1. The Ice Dogs are a single point away from clinching first place. The Lakers have a single game left in the regular season to move to try to overtake the Miners for fifth place. Elias Eisenbarth had two goals, Rylan Oatman had a goal and two helpers, Jordan Wales had three assists, McLaren Paulsen and Kelby Diehl had a goal and assist each, and Payton Hu had two assists to pace the Dryden attack. Diehl's seventh goal of the year at 19:12 of the second was on a Dryden power play. Tie Schumacher broke Kellan Mooney's shutout bid with 2:32 left in the game on a Fort Frances power play. Mooney made 19 saves for his 19th win. Gunner Paradis had 36 saves for Fort Frances. The Lakers were 1-5 on the power play while Dryden was 1-6. The Lakers took 21 of 40 penalty minutes. The Ice Dogs honoured their graduating players with a post game ceremony. Eli Antoine, Carson Devine, Emmanuel Nkombou, McKale Paul, Max Roby, Adam Zimmerman and Paulsen saluted the fans. A crowd of 327 attended. |
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