SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Wilderness win away over Iron Rangers from finals; Ice Dogs even series vs. Lakers
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – There were a pair of Superior International Junior Hockey League semifinal postseason contests staged Tuesday with the Minnesota Wilderness moving a win away from sweeping the Minnesota Iron Rangers while the Dryden Ice Dogs pulled even in their series with the Fort Frances Lakers.
MINNESOTA WILDERNESS 4 MINNESOTA IRON RANGERS 1 – At Hoyt Lakes Arena the visiting Wilderness jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period and never trailed en route to the win over the Iron Rangers.
The Wilderness now lead the best-of-seven series 3-0.
They got that trio of tallies all with a span of under four minutes as Nick Szopinski, Jordan Shockley and Mike Dietrich.
It was the Iron Rangers who notched the lone goal of the middle stanza with that marker coming off the stick of Noaln Holcombe at 15:44.
Joseph Drapluk added some insurance for the Wilderness in the final frame to round out the scoring.
Gordy Defiel stopped 32 of 33 attempts he faced to pick up the victory with Chase Hollander turning aside 24 of 28 in defeat for the Iron Rangers.
DRYDEN ICE DOGS 7 FORT FRANCES LAKERS 4 – The Ice Dogs trio of Tyson Holder, Chris Belhumeur and Austin Lewis combine to register 13 points on the night as Dryden evened the series with Fort Frances at 2-2 with the game 4 triumph at Memorial Arena.
Dryden grabbed a 3-0 cushion after 20 minutes on markers by Holder, Paul Thompson and Lewis, on the power play, at 19:56.
An early second period effort by Lewis spelled the end of Fort Frances netminder Talor Joseph’s night as he gave way to Tanner Hamilton the rest of the way.
The move seemed to inspire the Lakers as they responded in quick order with tallies from Kevin Kurm and Jon Carlson to make it a 4-2 game.
Dryden answered back before the stanza was complete however with Belhumeur and Cole Sonstebo, during a man advantage to put the home side back up by four heading to the third.
In that final session Fort Frances made another comeback attempt getting goals from Jordan Christianson and Kurm’s second of the night to pull the visitors to within two with 1:42 to go, but Holder iced it with an empty netter with four seconds left to wrap things up.
Eric Szymczyk made 30 saves to pick up the win while Hamilton suffering the loss in relief after allowing two goal on 13 shots.
Joseph meanwhile saw 15 pucks in 34 minutes of work.
Both series resume Thursday with the Iron Rangers trying to stave off elimination in a 7 p.m. start back in Hoyt Lakes while Fort Frances returns home to host Dryden in game 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Ice for Kids Arena.