By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay 26-10-4 56 pts .700 3rd GF 174 GA 125 +49 PIMs 635 PP% 19.4 PK% 83.0 at Kam River 28-9-1 57 pts .750 2nd GF 182 GA 113 +69 PIMs 793 PP% 25.8 PK% 79.8 Monday matinee
Head to head: TBN 2-3-1, KRW 4-1-1
Thunder Bay is on a five-game points streak, tops in the SIJHL. They’re 8-1-1 in their last 10. This Monday matinee game will finish off the seven-game head-to-head battles.
Easton Mikus is back after serving a two-game suspension, one point away from joining the 50-point club. His 25 goals lead the team. Added to his 24 assists he’s at 49 points–the top rookie scorer in the league. Captain Edison Weeks is the league leader in points with 60, and assists, with 38. EJ Paddington is next with 54 points on 22 goals and 32 helpers. Those three players were together as a line for much of the season. Head coach Rob DeGagne has spread the love in the second half, looking for more secondary scoring by splitting up his top three guns.
Tyler Jordan’s 23 goals makes him one of 11 players to reach the 20+ goal plateau. Jordan is 11th in league production with 41 points. His six game-winning goals ties him with Jeremy Dunmore of Kam River.
Dimitri Trahiotis has 10 goals and 28 points in his 39 games. Cohen Tangedal, 24 points, Cameron Dial, 23 points, defenceman Drew Caddo, 20 points, and Beau Helmeczi, 19, are next in line. Forward Alex Remenda has been a shot in the arm offensively, with 14 points (six goals) in his 11 games.
Ben Laurette has had an effective stint in net, with four wins in four games, with a 2.75 GAA and .912 SV%. Number one ‘tender Keenan Marks is 14-7-2, 2.94 and .912 with 1,490 minutes between the pipes.
Thunder Bay’s powerplay is 19.4% and the penalty kill is 82.5%. The Stars average 15.9 penalty minutes per game.
Kam River is three points behind first place Sioux Lookout and one ahead of the North Stars with one game in hand on Sioux Lookout and two in hand on Thunder Bay. Of their remaining 11 games five are against Kenora, two are against Fort Frances and one is against Wisconsin, in addition to this one against the Stars and two against Red Lake at home to end the regular season. Eight of their games are at home. The Walleye are 15-2-0 on home ice this year.
Jeremy Dunmore has 42 points with 22 goals, and Riley Borody is right behind with 41 (13 goals). Rookies Nickolas Fagnilli and Carter Poddubny have 39 and 34 points respectively. Poddubny has 11 snipes on the powerplay. Ryan Doucette is one of 22 players averaging over a point a game with 35 in 34 contests.
Secondary scoring has been a strong suit of the Walleye all year long.
Defenceman Brydon Bell, 31 points, Kaden Goodwin, 25, d-man Liam Bell, 24, Braeden Duchesne, 21, and rearguard Edwin Liang, 19, are evidence of that. Daxton Lang has returned from injury, contributing 16 points in 19 games along with his penalty killing duties.
In net, Ashton Sadauskas has been the main man all year with a 22-3-0 record, 2.55 GAA and .906 SV% and 1,503 minutes. Sadauskas leads the league in wins and net time. Rookie Travis VanderZwaag is 6-6-1 as the back-up.
The Walleye lead the league in powerplay efficiency with a 25.8% success rate. Their penalty kill is 79.8%.
Kam River averages 20.9 minutes per game in the bin.
Result, Kam River 5 – Thunder Bay 3
Wisconsin 12-19-5 29 pts .403 6th GF 129 GA 172 -43 PIMs 688 PP% 17.7 PK% 78.0 at Fort Frances 9-25-5 23 pts .295 7th GF 110 GA 176 -66 PIMs 824 PP% 14.8 PK% 79.1 Monday matinee
Head to head: WIS 3-0-1, FFL 1-1-2
Wisconsin has a chance to put a bigger lock on 6th place with a win against the Lakers on Monday. The teams play each other twice in Wisconsin to close out the season. The Lumberjacks have three games in hand on their Wisconsin, and a six-point lead in the standings.
Dillon Phillips’ recent surge has him 6th place in league scoring with 48 points and 20 goals. Nolan Fowler has an impressive 17 goals in 29 games with 13 helpers. Notably, Phillips has 12 penalty minutes and Fowler, 10. Defenceman Ryan Kayser has 28 points and nine goals and a feisty 84 PIMs.
Kaden Postal has 22 points, rookie Collin Baker has 21. Simon Davidson, Koen Burkholder and Connor Corcoran all have 17 points. Burkholder and Corcoran are rookies. Wisconsin Head coach Doug Lein noted that the Lumberjacks will only lose three 20-year-olds next year, boding well for the future.
Rookie goalie Riley Burnett is climbing the minutes played chart. The Mankato, MN native has 448 minutes since his first game on December, 16th. William Forrester has 730 minutes. Burnett is 3-4-1/4.55/.889 while Forrester has a 3-8-1/4.85/.882 stat line.
Wisconsin’s powerplay is 18.3% while the penalty kill is 78.0%.
The Lumberjacks average 19.1 penalty minutes per game.
Fort Frances is 4-4-2 in their last 10 games.
Clark Scaddan climbed to 20th place in league scoring with 15 goals and 19 assists. He has points in seven of his last nine games. Brady Krentz (14G 16A), Jack Wood (11G 18A), and rookie Brody Lindal (14G 11A) are next in the points pecking order. Rookie Kevin Kabel has 17 points, rookie Pierce Gouin has 15, and Magnus Pearson has 15.
Jack Orchard leads the Lakers goaltending corps with 1,295 minutes. He’s 4-16-2, with a GAA of 4.40 and a SV% of .895. Lukas Toth is 3-7-2 with a 4.27 GAA and .888 SV%. Thunder Bay’s Gunner Paradis is 2-2-1 in his five games, with 4.57 GAA and .894 SV%.
On special teams the Lakers have a 14.8% powerplay and 79.1% penalty kill.
The Lakers average 21.1 minutes in the box.
Result, Wisconsin 9 – Fort Frances 7
Sioux Lookout 28-7-4 60 pts .769 1st GF 155 GA 89 +66 PIMs 607 PP% 21.7 PK% 86.6 at Red Lake 24-13-2 50 pts .641 5th GF 175 GA 105 +70 PIMs 715 PP% 22.9 PK% 88.1 Monday matinee
Head to head: SLB 4-0-0, RLM 0-3-1
The first-place Bombers are rated 20th in the latest CJHL rankings. Sioux Lookout is coming off a 4-2 win over these very same Miners, an unlikely comeback that included three Bomber goals in the last 157 seconds of the game. Another anomaly: both goalies were pulled for an extra attacker. Jack Osmond was pulled for extra man with Sioux Lookout down by a goal, and Red Lake yanked Ethan Nietsch when they fell behind after the Bombers rallied to take the lead.
Undoubtedly, these recent events will have a bearing on this contest. The two teams square off March 1 and 2 in Sioux Lookout to complete the seven game regular season.
Owen Riffel leads the SIJHL in goals with 29. He’s third in league scoring with 52 points.
Connor Burke has 22 goals and 22 assists for 44 points, while Blake Burke has 43 points with 16 goals and 27 apples. Dayvan Bull leads all SIJHL rearguards in points with 34 in 33 games. Red Lake’s Blake Hiltermann is one back at 33 points.
Jonah Smith has 15 goals and 11 assists, a point ahead of defenceman Nolan Palmer (6G 19A). Rookie Owen Cotter and Cobe Delaney have 24 each. Tait Howell and Kaden Veller have 18 points each.
Osmond has a 15-6-2 record in 1,378 minutes with a GAA of 2.39 and SV% of .935. Matthew Spencer-Dahl is 9-1-2 with a 1.63 GAA and .954 SV% in 738 minutes. Matthew Ofukany has four wins in four starts.
The Bombers have allowed 89 goals on the year, 16 less than the second-fewest ranked team Red Lake.
Sioux Lookout has 21.7% powerplay and an 86.6% penalty kill.
The Bombers average 15.6 minutes in the penalty box.
Red Lake, fresh off that tough loss against the Bombers, still has the league’s top goal differential of +70.
Aiden Corbett reached 50 points with an even split of 25 goals and 25 helpers. He has points in nine of his last 10 games. Luke DeCorby has 38 points with 15 goals. Defenceman Blake Hiltermann has 33 points and 10 goals (and 107 PIMs).
Noah Tenney has 32 points with 12 goals. Gabe Tanton has 29 points, while Nathan Dann has 18 goals in his 22 games. Ryker Watt has 22 points with two clubs. Rookie Carter Deschamps has 10 goals and 10 assists in 34 games. Rookie Ethan Cerone, Matthew MacPherson and Landon van Engelen all have 18 points.
Dann is expected to be ready for the playoffs while Tanton is projected to miss two more weeks with an injury.
Neitsch is just 9-8-2 despite his 2.23 GAA and .934 SV% in 1,158 minutes. Rookie Noah Davis is 9-4-0 with a 2.81 GAA and .906 SV%. Jackson Pundyk is 2-0-0 in relief.
On special teams the Miners are second in powerplay efficiency with a 22.9% rating. The Miners have the league’s best penalty kill at 88.1% and lead the SI with 10 shorties.
The Miners average 18.3 penalty minutes per game.
Result, Red Lake 4 – Sioux Lookout 2
Kenora 2-33-1 5 pts .069 8th GF 71 GA 242 -171 PIMs 1,004 PP% 9.9 PK% 69.4 at Dryden 25-14-2 52 pts .634 4th GF 151 GA 125 +26 PIMs 873 PP% 22.2 PK% 79.9 Monday matinee
Head to head: KEN 0-4-0, DRY 4-0-0
Kenora is on a six-game slide after their big 3-1 win over Thunder Bay on January 26th. The Islanders remaining schedule includes five games against Kam River, three against Dryden, and two against Sioux Lookout. A lost game against Thunder Bay back on October 1st, 2023 and a pair of postponed matches against Wisconsin are on the docket as well.
Aaron Bertschinger has 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points to lead the Islanders in goals and points. Brayden Mackay has 23 points, John Paul Scaringi has 22 and defenceman Braden Swampy has nine goals and 10 helpers for 19 points. Hard rock defenceman Reid Zurkan has no official goals even though his shootout tally in game one won the first game in franchise history. Zurkan has 12 assists and 111 penalty minutes.
Matthew Stephens leads the goalie corps with 984 minutes and a save percentage of .901. Kaden King and Connor Dunham-Fox provide support.
On special teams Kenora has a 9.9% powerplay and 69.4% penalty kill.
The Islanders lead the league in penalty minutes with 1,004 and penalty minutes per game at 27.9 minutes per game.
Dryden leads the league with 41 games played. The Ice Dogs are two points up on 5th place Red Lake, and are four points back of 3rd place Thunder Bay. They finish off the regular season with a pair against the Stars on March 15 and 16.
Max Roby has 21 goals and 18 assists to lead the team in point production. McLaren Paulsen matches Roby’s 21 goals and is a point behind Roby. Eli Antoine has 14 goals and 21 assists.
Sean Smith (10G 20A), Carson Devine (14G 14A, 41 games played), and Bryce Benfield (12G 15A) are next in line. Benfield is currently on suspension. He’ll be an impact player when he returns before the playoffs. His 27 points were accumulated in 22 games. Ryland Maier has 23 points. A pair of defencemen, Sebastiano Biagi and Tag Bryson, have 22 and 21 points respectively.
Rookie Ewan Soutar has 1,289 minutes in net, a 13-7-1 record and a 2.37 GAA and .924 SV%. Christian Lynch has three wins in three games with a 1.95 GAA and .934 SV%.
The Ice Dogs have a 22.2% powerplay an 79.9% penalty kill.
Dryden averages 21.3 penalty minutes per game.
Result, Dryden 5 – Kenora 3
Fort Frances at Kam River Fri/Sat
Head to head: FFL 0-5-0, KRW 5-0-0
Thunder Bay at Red Lake Fri/Sat
Head to head: TBN 4-0-1, RLM 1-3-1
Sioux Lookout at Wisconsin Fri/Sat
Head to head: SLB 5-0-0, WIS 0-5-0
Dryden at Kenora Fri/Sat
Head to head: DRY 4-0-0, KEN 0-4-0