By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay 1 at Red Lake 0 Friday
Newly acquired Tyler Jordan got a lot of firsts off his plate in his first North Stars’ game. His goal at 15:38 of the first period was his first goal, his first powerplay goal–and the best part–his first game winning goal as Thunder Bay defeated Red Lake 1-0 behind the shutout goalkeeping of Keenan Marks. The Stars needed the win, their second against four losses.
Jordan batted in the puck on a rebound on the eve of his 19th birthday.
He was acquired from the Steinbach Pistons of the MJHL where he was scoreless in two games. The 5-10, 161-lb St. Michael, MN native was a sniper for St. Michael-Albertville High of the USHS-MN loop where he recorded 25 goals in 26 games adding 14 assists for 39 points with just 12 penalty minutes last year.
Marks shunted aside 33 shots for his second win, raised his save percentage to .922 and lowered his goals against to 2.55.
Red Lake’s Ethan Neitsch has allowed two goals in two games and has two losses to show for it. The 20-year-old from Edmonton, AB has a 1.01 GAA and has stopped 56 of 58 shots in his two starts with the Miners. Against the Stars he stopped 29 of 30.
Cohen Tangedahl was credited with the primary assist, while defenceman Drew Caddo picked up his third point of the year.
The Stars were 1-2 on the powerplay while killing off four Red Lake powerplays. Thunder Bay recorded 30 penalty minutes to Red Lake’s six.
The Miners fell to 4-3-0.
Thunder Bay 3 at Red Lake 2 OT Saturday
Garren Voisey scored on a 2-on-1 at 1:32 of overtime as the Thunder Bay North Stars completed a weekend sweep of Red Lake with a 3-2 win. Two defencemen combined on the game winner. Sam Skillestad fed the disc to Voisey, who beat hard luck Red Lake netminder Ethan Neitsch for his first goal of the season.
The Stars were full value for the win, outshooting the Miners 44 to 21.
Red Lake’s Aiden Corbett tied the game twice. Keegan Jones opened the scoring for Thunder Bay at 1:30 of the second snapping home Conner Larrett’s faceoff win for his first of the year. Larrett snagged his first point of the year on the play. Corbett converted on a 2-on-1 with Noah Tenney with 11 seconds left in the second to knot the score.
Easton Mikus sent Edison Weeks into the clear and the Wainwright, AB native buried his second of the campaign 31 seconds into the third to give the Stars a 2-1 lead. Corbett cleaned up a loose puck, deposited in the Stars’ crease area by Tenney, to tie the game at 6:32.
Voisey’s game winner came at the expense of Neitsch, who has allowed just four regulation goals in nine periods of play. His GAA is 1.66 and his save percentage is .951. Ethan Barron got his first win of the year in the Thunder Bay goal.
The Stars are 3-4-0 on the season. Red Lake fell to 4-3-1.
Thunder Bay took six minor penalties to Red Lake’s three. All the goals were scored at even strength.
Wisconsin 3 at Kam River 9 Friday
Ryan Doucette and Jette Mintenko both had tricks, and five other Fighting Walleyes had multi-point games as Kam River routed visiting Wisconsin 9-3. Riley Borody had a goal and two assists, Jeremy Dunmore three assists, Kaden Goodwin had a goal and assist, and Carter Poddubny and Max Wright each collected two points each. Doucette also added an assist to raise his point total to eight on the campaign. His three goals were his first of the season.
Ashton Sadauskas stopped 16 of 19 for his fourth win.
Rylen Freshwater took the loss for Wisconsin, stopping 29 of 35. The Lumberjacks pulled him after Mintenko’s second goal put Kam River up 6-1. Jakob Barcelona took over half way through the game surrendering the final three on 21 shots.
Ryan Kayser’s unassisted goal at 4:32 of the first had Wisconsin in the lead. Goodwin scored at 7:12 and Doucette got his first at 19:02 to give Kam River a 2-1 lead after one.
The Walleye amassed 22 shots in the second period scoring six of the seven goals in the frame to put the game out of reach. Wisconsin’s Carson Shafor’s powerplay effort at 15:45 interrupted the barrage. Shafor’s goal was his first in the SIJHL.
Brydon Bell for Kam River and Connor Corcoran for Wisconsin exchanged goals in the third. Corcoran and Kayser had two point nights for the Lumberjacks.
Wisconsin was 1-5 on the powerplay and killed off two Kam River powerplays.
The Walleye took 22 of 38 penalty minutes.
Attendance was 555.
Wisconsin 1 at Kam River 2 Saturday
Kam River scored both their goals on special teams as they won their sixth in a row with a 2-1 win over Wisconsin. Travis VanderZwaag picked up his second win of the year with a 28-save performance. Jeremy Dunmore scored shorthanded at 17:43 for the game winner.
All of the scoring was done in the first period.
Connor Corcoran’s backhand centering pass found Zach Johnson on VanderZwaag’s doorstep as Wisconsin opened the scoring at 8:56. Edwin Liang threaded a pass to Daxton Lang who buried his 4th to tie it up. Dunmore sniped from the top of the left circle high glove side on Jakob Barcelona for the game winner.
Dunmore had a chance in the third period to add an insurance marker. The Lumberjacks were called for covering the puck in their crease and Dunmore was awarded a penalty shot. Barcelona calmly made a pad save to preserve the score. Barcelona made 40 saves in the game despite taking the loss. VanderZwaag was able to thwart multiple breakaway chances for his part to garner his second win.
Wisconsin took 36 penalty minutes to Kam River’s 12. The Walleye were 1-7 on the powerplay while Wisconsin was 0-5 while also allowing a shorty. The Lumberjacks have just three powerplay goals this season in 46 opportunities and have allowed three while being a man up.
Attendance was 403.
Kenora 1 at Dryden 7 Friday
Kenora’s Matt Stephens stopped 20 of 21 shots in the first period to keep Kenora in the game but the shots just kept coming as the Ice Dogs scored two more in the second and four in the third to defeat the Islanders 7-1 in Dryden.
Kaden Bandura scored shorthanded at 13:22 to give Dryden a 1-0 lead. Bryce Benfield and Ryland Maier tacked on for a 3-0 lead after two. Max Roby with his 8th of the year at 0:55, Whittaker Heart, Tag Bryson with his first, and Carson Devine at 16:41 made it 7-0.
Darian Sinclair broke Michael O’Sullivan’s shutout bid with 2:14 to go to end the scoring. Stephens faced 58 shots and was selected third star for his efforts. O’Sullivan improved to 3-0 with a 2.32 GAA and .914 SV%.
Devine had three points for Dryden, while Bryson and Benfield had two each.
Kenora was 0-3 on the powerplay, Dryden 0-2.
The Islanders had 18 penalty minutes to Dryden’s 10.
Dryden packed the rink with 627 fans in attendance.
Kenora 0 at Dryden 11 Saturday
Kenora’s exhibition win in Dryden way back in September seemed like a distant memory as the Ice Dogs buried 11, including eight goals on the powerplay, to defeat the Islanders 11-0.
The Dogs outshot the Islanders 57-10 to capture their 6th win a row. Kenora is on a five-game slide.
Kaden Bandura led the Dryden scoring with two goals and two assists. Geoff Bjarnason and Bryce Benfield scored twice, Sean Smith had one goal and two assists and Carson Devine, Eli Antoine and Ben Coatham had two helpers each. In fact, only two Dryden players did not register a point.
Ewan Soutar collected his second shutout, upped his record to 4-1-0, lowered his GAA to 1.20 and bumped his SV% to .957.
On the flip side, Kenora’s Jero Rossi logged 40 minutes in the cage, letting in seven of the 40 shots he faced, while Kaden King let in four on 17 shots in the third period.
Referees Travis Batters and Matt Godin–and linesmen Justin Lake and Marc Lavoie–had their hands full. The Islanders took 71 minutes in penalties, Dryden 47. The Ice Dogs last six goals were on the powerplay.
Another fine crowd of 531 watched Dryden continue to roll.
Fort Frances 0 at Sioux Lookout 5 Friday
The Bombers remained undefeated in regulation play beating Fort Frances 5-0. Jack Osmond recorded his first shutout, stopping 31. He lowered his GAA to 2.24 and upped his SV% to .927 en route to his second win.
Ty Lone was the only Bomber to collect multiple points, scoring at 18:02 of the final frame and assisting on Owen Cotter and Nolan Palmer goals earlier in the game.
Alex Lucas had the lone goal in the first period, winning the draw and then deflecting Bradley Thompson’s point shot for his second of the year. Cotter’s shorthanded goal at 7:57 of the second on a dish from Lone was the Bombers’ sole tally in the second.
Sioux Lookout opened up the bomb doors in the third. Owen Riffel notched his 11th at 2:55, Palmer clicked on a powerplay midway through, and Lone’s late marker was assisted on by Dayvan Bull who collected his 8th helper of the campaign. Bull is leading the league in assists by defenceman.
Lukas Toth handled 47 of 52 shots in the Laker net. Tyler Miller’s crew has averaged a goal a game through their six losses and sit with a -26 rating with 32 goals against. Fort was 0-9 on the powerplay. Sioux Lookout went 1-7 with the man advantage. The Lakers were able to at least cool down the league’s hottest powerplay.
The Bombers took 28 minutes in penalties. The Lakers had seven minor penalties.
Another fine crowd of 448 was on hand.
Fort Frances 3 at Sioux Lookout 4 SO Saturday
Sioux Lookout remained the only SIJHL team not to lose in regulation as Owen Riffel scored in the shootout to defeat the Fort Frances 4-3. Count it as a moral victory for the Lakers, who overcame a pair of two goal deficits to tie the game and killed off an overtime penalty to skate away with their first point in seven games.
The Lakers have played the top three teams in the league–Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Kam River–exclusively. Those teams are a combined 21-2-1. The rest of the league, minus Fort Frances, is 9-17-3.
Dayvan Bull scored his first goal of the year at 15:25 of the first on a Bombers’ powerplay to kick off proceedings. Bull beat Jack Orchard high glove side. Connor Burke made it 2-0 in much the same fashion at 14:38 of the second–high glove on Orchard, Sioux Lookout powerplay. Ryker Watt got his first of the season with 33 seconds left in the second frame, collecting a rebound from in close to narrow the score.
Dale Horseman connected on a 2-on-1 with Owen Cotter to give the Bombers a 3-1 lead at 5:31 of the third. The Lakers kept coming, however. Cobe Delaney found a pocket and stealthily tipped one past Matthew Spencer-Dahl at 8:57 to make it a one-goal game. Brady Krentz tipped Deagan Watson’s shot at 18:05 to tie it up and send it to overtime.
Fort was able to kill off a penalty in the overtime session to send the game into a shootout. Connor Burke and Jack Wood traded goals for Sioux Lookout and Fort Frances respectively. Blake Burke and Watt were denied. Riffel shelved his shot past Orchard. Clark Scaddan beat Spencer-Dahl but not the post to end the game.
Spencer-Dahl stopped 28 of 31 for his second win. He sports a 1.92 GAA and .935 SV%. Orchard picked up his first point in net against four regulation losses.
The Bombers were 2-9 on the powerplay. Fort Frances was 0-5. The Lakers took 52 of 74 penalty minutes. The Hangar hosted 389 fans.