Dryden pounded in 22 weekend goals, extended their points streak to 11 games, and took over first place in week seven action. Ranked 18th in CJHL last week, they did plenty to elevate their status for this one.
McLaren Paulsen leads the league in scoring with 34 points. Paulsen is tied in goals with teammate Max Roby with 14, and assists with teammate Carson Devine with 20.
Second place Thunder Bay (ranked 17th in the CJHL through Oct. 21) came back for a win against Ironwood on Tuesday. North Star forward Marcellus Francis is 27th in league scoring (8G 4A 12pts), accomplishing the task in just five games. Tyler Jordan and Alex Remenda are in the top ten with 22 points each.
Veteran coach and Thunder Bay native Larry Wintoneak won his second in a row as the Fighting Walleye continue their ascent in the standings, extending their winning streak to four games. Jett Mintenko’s 25 points leads the squad. Team captain Daxton Lang has 20. Ashton Sadauskas has seven goaltending wins.
Sioux Lookout is tied with Kam River for third place with 18 points. Their powerplay got a weekend boost with three over the weekend. The Bombers are 4-0-1 in their last five. Matthew Ofukany is 5-1-0 with a league-leading 1.99 GAA and .934 SV%. Alex Lucas and Jonah Smith have 15 points each to pace the team.
Fifth place belong to the Fort Frances Lakers, who took the reigning Bill Salonen champion Bombers to the wall, gaining two points. The Lakers powerplay weighs in at 34.0%–a fraction behind Dryden’s top rated 34.4% PP. Brady Krentz leads the team in points with 14.
Red Lake is 5-7-0 on the year. They’re 3-7-0 in their last 10 after starting the campaign with three wins. Nathan Dann leads the team in scoring with eight goals and eight helpers.
Ironwood is on a six-game losing streak, badly in need of a win or two. Kole Kronstedt has been a horse in net, leading the league with 703 minutes. Sadauskas is second with 540. Marshall Thomas is in 10th place on the leader boards with 20 points.
Kenora has a lone win and two ties in 14 games. Josh Boyko has seven goals to lead the team. The Islanders have taken 411 penalty minutes to lead the SI in that department.
 | AT THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS |  | ||
| Marcellus Francis continued his hot hand scoring two, and Ben Laurette came on in relief and secured the goaltending win as the North Stars came back to defeat Ironwood 5-4 before 208 fans at Fort William Gardens. Francis scored on a rebound at 6:31 of the opening period on a Stars' powerplay. Cohen Tangedal made it 2-0 Thunder Bay, also scoring on a rebound at 8:36. Jack Carruthers cashed in on a rebound for Ironwood at 13:54 to narrow the lead to one. Thunder Bay outshot the Lumberjacks 22-6 in the first and 20-12 in the second but found themselves down 4-2 after 40 minutes. Colin Baker, Marshall Thomas and Jack Hanna scored in a 3:04 span, chasing Keenan Marks from the Thunder Bay cage at 10:45 of the second frame. In the Ironwood net, Thunder Bay native Sam Keene was putting on a show, stopping 40 of 42 through two periods. Baker went top shelf for his fourth, Thomas got one through the pads of Marks 1:03 later for his seventh goal, and Hanna scored from the doorstep for his fourth of the year leading to Laurette's appearance. Marks ended the night with 11 saves on 15 shots. Thunder Bay had its third 20-shot period in a row in the third--64 shots overall--and were able to penetrate the armour of Keene with three unanswered goals. 2008-born Evan Simeoni's one-timer shaved Ironwood's lead to 4-3 at 3:55 on Thunder Bay's second powerplay goal. Just 25 seconds later, Francis' backhander beat Keene for his eight of the year to tie it. Matthew Lysak completed the comeback by corralling a loose puck and putting it home at 6:08. The Stars were able to keep Keene pinned in net as time wound down. Thunder Bay took over first place with their 12th consecutive game with at least a point. They haven't lost in regulation since September 14th. Simeoni and Tangedal added assists, and Alex Remenda had a pair of assists for Thunder Bay. Laurette stopped all 13 shots he faced for his league-leading seventh win of the year. Keene stopped 59 of 64 in the loss. Carruthers and Thomas added assists for Ironwood. The Stars were 2-3 on the powerplay and killed off their lone two minute minor. |
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 | AT SIOUX LOOKOUT BOMBERS |  | ||
| Sioux Lookout's struggling powerplay sprung to life late in the third as the Bombers overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Fort Frances Lakers 4-3 before 404 patrons at the Hangar. Brodie Wood notched the game-winner on a rare 5-on-3 overtime powerplay. Sam Delaquis scored unassisted on a backhander at 8:06 of the first period for the Bombers. Fort Frances took the lead with two goals in the second. Landon Lowes got his third on a Lakers' powerplay and Ben Exell applied the finishing touches on a saucer pass from Ian Ness at 16:23 to put the visitors ahead 2-1. Pierce Gouin's one-timer on a Lakers' powerplay made it 3-1. Jonah Smith got his fourth on a rebound midway through the third period to make it 3-2. Fort Frances' Noah McPherson was hauled down at 15:40 of the third resulting in a penalty shot. Ofukany gloved McPherson's attempt to keep it 3-2 for the Lakers--a crucial save to keep the game close. Kaden Veller's point shot on a Bombers' powerplay tied the game at 3-3 at 16:23. The Lakers drew two penalties at 1:18 of overtime to help tee up the Sioux Lookout win. Wood scored 1:22 into the two-man advantage, sniping from the high slot. Nolan Koethler made 36 stops in the Fort Frances net. Ofukany shunted aside 35 of 38 shots for his fifth win. Smith added two assists for a three-point night for Sioux Lookout. Wood and Veller added assists. Gouin had an assist and Kobie Anderson had two helpers to lead the Lakers. |
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| The Bombers picked up three weekend points and the Lakers established themselves as legitimate contenders as the teams battled to a 3-3 draw before another crowd of 404 fans at the Hangar. Gunner Paradis of Fort Frances and Matthew Spencer-Dahl of Sioux Lookout locked into a goaltending battle. Paradis stopped 44 of 47 and Spencer-Dahl 46 of 49. Landon Lowes got the ice breaker, scoring his fourth of the year on a shorthanded turnover at 2:13 of the first for a 1-0 Lakers' lead. Tait Howell tied it on Ty Lone's cross-ice feed at 4:36. It was the Bombers who would take a 3-1 lead in this one. Alex Lucas completed a tic-tac-toe with Jonah Smith and Owen Cotter on a Bomber powerplay at 5:55 of the second to put the home side ahead 2-1. Kaden Veller got one under the arm of Paradis at 4:36 of the third creating a 3-1 spread for Sioux Lookout. Carter Deschamps scored over the shoulder of Spencer-Dahl at 9:20 to tighten the score, and Pierce Gouin struck at 15:27 with a glove-side snipe to tie the score at three-all. The teams exchanged grade A scoring chances early in overtime. Kobie Anderson rang one off the bar for Fort, and Veller picked up the rebound and rumbled end-to-end on a breakaway only the be denied by a Paradis' pad save--all before the one-minute mark of extra time. Ian Ness got off a final shot with a second left in extra time for the Lakers with Ofukany shunting it aside to preserve the tie. The Bombers' powerplay was 1-2, while killing off three Laker powerplays. Sioux Lookout took 12 of 18 penalty minutes assessed. The Bombers climbed into a third-place tie with Kam River. The Lakers are four points back with a game in hand. |
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 | VS/AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |  | ||
| Max Roby had four goals and an assist, and Jordan Wales recorded a natural hat trick in a 1:58 span of the third period as the Dryden Ice Dogs snarled to a 13-2 triumph over Kenora. Dryden led 4-0 after one, 7-1 after two, and fired in six more in the third. Tempers flared throughout. The Islanders took 53 of the 95 penalty minutes assessed. Emmanuel Nkombou got his 10th at 6:37 of the first. Roby notched a pair and Riley Balicki counted his second of the year to round out the first 20 minutes. McLaren Paulsen on a Dryden powerplay, Hudson Favreau shorthanded for Kenora, Roby and Paulsen were the second period snipers. Evan Mayer, Wales with his first three of the year at 7:50, 7:56 and 9:48, Larry Flett of Kenora, and Karson Kerbes of Dryden made it 12-2. Roby's fourth of the game and 13th of the year closed out the scoring at 14:30 of the third frame. Kellan Mooney was the winning goaltender, upping his record to 6-1-0. Kaden King was on the hook for the first five goals allowed and took the loss. Ron Cailo was tagged with the final eight Dryden goals. Carson Devine added four assists, Rylen Oatman had three helpers, and Hu had two apples for Dryden. Nkombou and Mayer had a goal and assist each, Kerbes had three points overall for the 'Dogs. The win allowed Dryden to tie Thunder Bay for first place. |
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| Payton Hu had two goals and an assist, six Dryden players had two points, as the Ice Dogs parlayed a 5-0 first period lead into a 9-3 victory before 405 fans at Dryden Memorial Arena. Dryden jumped ahead of idle Thunder Bay with the weekend sweep, and have points in their last 11 games to sit atop the SIJHL standings with 25 points. Dryden has five of the top six point producers in the SIJHL, led by McLaren Paulsen's 34 points on 14 goals and 20 assists. Evan Mayer, Hu, Paulsen, Karson Kerbes and Max Roby staked Dryden to the 5-0 lead before Ezekiel Kirkness scored at 16:30 for Kenora to complete period one. Hu made it 6-1, but Josh Boyko and Hunter McLean answered for the Islanders in second period scoring. McKale Paul, Paulsen and Rylan Oatman tacked on three more for the Ice Dogs in the third to complete the route. Braxton Castagno made 14 saves for the win. James Sinclair faced 57 shots in the Islander cage. The Ice Dogs took 38 of 66 penalty minutes assessed as the bad blood from Friday's game surfaced in Saturday's contest as well. Eleven misconduct penalties were handed out along with multiple fighting majors. The Islanders lead the SI in penalty minutes with 411 over 14 games, and Dryden has 384 in 15 games. Four teams are in the 200 penalty minutes class. Ironwood and Fort Frances have yet to get there. Roby, Kerbes, Oatman and Paulsen all added assists to their goals, and Nkombou and Wales had two assists each. Boyko had a goal and assist for Kenora. Dryden was 3-6 on the powerplay, with Paulsen adding a shorthanded marker. The Islanders were 1-7 while a man up. |
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| VS/AT KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE |  | ||
| Larry Wintoneak picked up a win in his first game as Kam River's new head coach as the Fighting Walleye defeated Ironwood 6-3 before 453 fans at Norwest Arena. The Walleye climbed to 8-5-0 while the Lumberjacks have lost five straight and fell to 2-12-1. Kam River held a 4-0 lead until back-to-back Lumberjack goals 44 seconds apart in the middle frame made a game of it. Evan Lachimea's backhander deflected off a skate and in to open the scoring at 17:07 of the first. Just 50 seconds later Amar Powar struck from a sharp angle for a 2-0 lead. Jett Mintenko got his 11th of the year on a crisp cross-ice pass from Daxton Lang on a Kam River powerplay, and Callum Halls got his first of two two minutes later on a high glove-side snipe to forge the 4-0 lead. Starting Lumberjacks' goaltender Mathias Anderson was pulled for workhorse Kole Kronstedt at that point and Ironwood mounted a comeback. Marshall Thomas' low shot stick side shot beat a surprised Ashton Sadauskas, and defenceman Cooper Malkowski sneaked in from the point and deposited one from the slot to reduce the lead to two. Easton Debray scored on his own rebound to restore a three-goal Kam River lead. Sadauskas stoned Jack Croghan from point blank range with time running out in the second to preserve the margin. Former Walleye Matteo Salvatore struck at 12:44 of the third to make it 5-3 on an Ironwood powerplay. Halls got his second of the game for Kam River less than a minute later for his fifth of the year to close out the scoring. Sadauskas made 22 stops for his seventh win. Anderson let in four on 30 shots and was tagged for the loss. Kronstedt faced 23 shots in relief. For the Walleye, Zach Baumann had three assists to pace all point producers. Mintenko added an assist, and Daxton Lang had two helpers. Salvatore, Malkowski and Felix St-Onge had two points each for Ironwood. The Lumberjacks were 1-2 while Kam River was 1-3 on their respective powerplays. The Lumberjacks took five minor penalties to Ironwood's four. |
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| Kam River won their fourth in a row with a second 6-3 home win over Ironwood. Daxton Lang recorded the last three Walleye goals and tacked on an assist to pace the attack Kam River offence. Kaden Goodwin scored his fifth of the year at 4:21, Carter Poddubny struck shorthanded at 5:54, and Sam Sargent connected at 10:28 on a centering pass from Nickolas Fagnilli to open up a 3-0 home town lead in the first. Matteo Salvatore countered for Ironwood, powering a point shot through traffic past Travis VanderZwaag for his second of the year on an Ironwood powerplay to make it 3-1 after 20 minutes. Lang notched the only goal of the second stanza, going bar down with a backhander at 17:45 for a 4-1 Kam River lead. The teams traded four third period goals. Lang sealed the win with a rebound strike on Kole Kronstedt's doorstep at 7:07 for a 5-1 lead. Nolan Fowler's sixth, a low glove side snipe 23 seconds later, shaved a goal off the lead. Lang's hat trick goal at 8:56, a one-timer on a centering feed from Evan Lachimea, re-established a four-goal Kam River margin. Salvatore's second of the game at 15:07 on a Lumberjacks' powerplay closed out the scoring. Jett Mintenko added four assists tying him with Payton Hu of Dryden for third in league scoring with 25 points. Kaden Goodwin added an assist and Easton Debray had two helpers for Kam River. The Walleye pelted Kronstedt with 60 shots. VanderZwaag made 23 saves and recorded his second win of the year. Kam River was 0-4 with man advantage. Ironwood had two goals in nine chances. Attendance was 340. |
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