By Gary Moskalyk
Eight weekend games are scheduled for October 13-14 as the eight-team SIJHL hits its stride. Wisconsin visits Kam River, Thunder Bay ventures to Red Lake, Kenora heads to Dryden and Fort Frances journeys to Sioux Lookout.
Dryden and Kam River enter week 4 on four-game winning streaks. Sioux Lookout has yet to lose in regulation. Red Lake is 4-2-0 with a two-game streak alive.
On the flip side of the coin Wisconsin has two losses in extra time and a win in six games, Thunder Bay and Kenora have a win each, and Fort Frances is winless in five.
Thunder Bay 1-4-0 GF 19 GA 20 -1 PIMs 78 PP 15.4% PK 80.0% at Red Lake 4-2-0 GF 24 GA 16 +8 PIMs 124 PP 15.2% PK 88.9%
The North Stars have yet to hit their stride. They’ve had some tough losses, a blowout win against Kenora, the line of EJ Paddington/Easton Mikus/Edison Weeks producing like crazy, and goalies Keenan Marks and Ethan Barron holding the fort.
Mikus is the youngest player in the league and sits 4th in league scoring with 11 points. Paddington has 12 points with five goals and seven helpers and captain Edison Weeks has a goal and seven assists. No other North Star cracks the top-40.
Thunder Bay is the least penalized team in the league with 78 minutes.
Through it all Thunder Bay is -1 in plus/minus. Expect last year’s cup finalists to get into a groove sooner rather than later.
Red Lake, under new head coach Lee Stone, has had an impressive start. Defenceman Blake Hiltermann leads all defenders with four goals and sits behind Sebastiano Biagi in points with eight. His 22 penalty minutes leads all the top point producers.
Noah Tenney has three goals and four assists followed by Luke DeCorby with six points in six games and defenceman Gavin McIntosh (1G 5A). Jared Burnett, Gabe Tanton and Skyler Carriere have five, four and three points respectively.
The Miners are tied with Bombers with an 88.9% penalty kill. Seven of the eight SIJHL clubs have PK’s in the 80-90 per cent range.
Trent Boryszczuk is carrying the mail in net with a 4-1 record, 2.76 GAA and .928 SV%. Ethan Neitsch lost his only start but allowed only a goal in 59 minutes and has a .964 SV%.
Wisconsin 1-3-2 GF 17 GA 27 -10 PIMs 118 PP 5.6% PK 76.7% at Kam River 4-1-0 GF 26 GA 14 +12 PIMs 133 PP 17.6% PK 81.8%
Wisconsin’s special teams could use a good game or two to get the team going in a more positive direction.
New additions Koen Burkholder (3G 3A) and Marshall Thomas (1G 5A) lead the team with six points each.
William Forrester is 1-2-1 between the pipes with 219 minutes in net. Rylan Freshwater is number two on the depth chart with 86 minutes. Jacob Barcelona was stellar in his lone start, collecting a point for the team in a 3-2 overtime loss.
The Lumberjacks took a playoff game against the Walleye last year in the playoffs after defeating the Bombers in a seven-game thriller the series before. They need to build on those successes going forward.
Kam River has won their last four games.
Jett Mintenko leads the team in scoring with four goals, two assists for six points. Four players are at the five point level: Jeremy Dunmore, Nikolas Fagnilli, Edwin Liang and Max Wright. Daxton Lang, Brydon Bell and Kaden Goodwin have four each.
The Fighting Walleye lead the SI in goals per game at over five, and lead the league in penalty minutes per game at 26-plus.
Ashton Sadauskas has been the prime goaltender to date with 240 minutes in net with three wins and a 2.75 GAA. Travis VanderZwaag has a win in his lone start.
Last year’s champions show no signs of slowing down under head coach Jesse Messier and GM Kevin McCallum.
Kenora 1-3-0 GF 15 GA 28 -13 PIMs 101 PP 16.7% PK 81.5% at Dryden 6-1-0 GF 27 GA 14 +13 PIMs 170 PP 13.2% PK 81.8%
Expansion Kenora won their first-ever game in 10-man shootout. Success has been tough to find since then. They’re allowing seven goals a game but they’re also scoring at an above average clip.
Aaron Bertschinger is 10th in league scoring with four goals and three assists in four games played. Jeremiah Jacques, Darian Sinclair, Brayden Mackay, Keanu Woodhouse and Jean Paul Scaringi all have four points.
Matthew Stephens is the lead goaltender to date, securing the win with a 162 minutes played. Jero Rossi and Kaden King have also seen time.
The Islanders have been a physical team with 25 minutes in penalties per game through four games.
Dryden leads the standings with six wins and a loss.
Max Roby already has two game winning goals among the seven he’s scored. Defenceman Sebastiano Biagi leads all rearguards in points, tied with Roby with nine. McLaren Paulsen (3-3-6), Eli Antoine (1-4-5), Ryland Maier (1-4-5), Elias Eisenbarth (3-1-4) and Sean Smith (3-1-4) round out a potent attack.
Ewan Soutar is the man in net with three wins, a league-leading 1.51 GAA and .954 SV%. Michael O’Sullivan has two wins in net. Overall the Ice Dogs have allowed 14 goals in seven games–two a game.
The powerplay sits at 13.2%, a few ticks below their usual output.
Fort Frances 0-5-0 GF 6 GA 27 -21 PIMs 121 PP 15.4% PK 87.0% at Sioux Lookout 5-0-1 GF 29 GA 17 +12 PIMs 117 PP 35.3% PK 88.9%
Fort Frances has yet to untracked offensively with just six goals in five games. Jack Wood and Emerson Evans have three points each. With a number of returning players perhaps it’s just too small of a sample size.
Former Walleye Jack Orchard has carried the load in net. He’s played 214 minutes with Lukas Toth playing the other 85.
On special teams the Lakers are a respectable 15.4% with the man advantage and 87.0% on the penalty kill–good for third in the league.
The engines are purring for the Sioux Lookout Bombers this season. Head coach Carson Johnstone is looking to reverse last year’s early playoff exit with a deeper playoff run this season.
The Bombers have a .917 winning percentage, but sit in second place by a point to Dryden. The Bombers have a game in hand.
Owen Riffel leads the league in goals with 10 and points with 17. Line mate Blake Burke is second with 13 points (5-8-13) and Connor Burke has nine points with a 4G 5A split.
Defenceman Dayvan Bull has seven assists and another defenceman, Nolan Palmer, has two goals and three assists. Jonah Smith has four goals.
The Bomber powerplay has been electric. In 34 powerplay opportunities they have 12 goals for a 35.3% rating. Next in line Red Lake and Dryden have five powerplay goals on the year. They’re also 88.9% on the penalty kill, tops in class.
Jack Osmond leads the goaltending corps, cracking the 3.00 GAA barrier with a 2.99. Matthew Ofukany has two wins in his two starts, and Matthew Spencer-Dahl allowed one goal in his lone start–a win.