By Gary Moskalyk
The Kam River Fighting Walleye took over first place with a weekend sweep over Dryden. Nathan Dann of Red Lake had back-to-back hat tricks as the Miners took two from Fort Frances.
The Kenora Islanders have a new coach. Nathan Bruyere took the reins October 31.
Thunder Bay stayed hot getting three points in Wisconsin.
The top four teams are separated by three points.
Kenora 1 at Fort Frances 5
Five different Lakers hit the scoresheet and Jack Orchard made 20 saves for his first win of the year as the Lakers defeated Kenora 5-1 before a Halloween night crowd of 262 at Ice For Kids Arena.
Tristan Bear opened the scoring for Kenora collecting a rebound for his second of the year at 3:49. From there it was all Fort Frances.
Brady Krentz buried a backhander on a two-on-one with Noah McPherson at 11:30 to end the first period scoring.
The Lakers took the lead for good at 1:22 of the second. Pierce Gouin kept the puck in the Islanders’ zone and moments later Watt jumped on a loose puck and fired in his 3rd. At the 12:00 mark, Cobe Delaney collected a rebound from in close and beat Jero Rossi for a 3-1 lead on a Laker powerplay.
Trever Sanderson’s wrister blocker side gave the Lakers a 4-1 lead at 3:58 of the third on an extended five-minute Laker powerplay. Clark Scaddan’s backhander on a second poke in the crease area with 2:10 left polished off the scoring.
Rossi made 57 saves in the Islander net as his team was outshot 23-11, 22-6 and 17-4 in the three periods. Orchard lowered his GAA to 3.94 and hit the magic .900 SV% plateau with his night.
The offensively starved Lakers went over two goals a game for the year and Watt entered the top-40 with his two point night. Scaddan and Krentz had assists and Jack Wood and McPherson had two helpers each.
Kenora took 27 penalty minutes on nine infractions. The Lakers took five minors. Kenora was 0-3 on the powerplay while Fort was 2-7.
Dryden 0 at Kam River 7 Friday
In the battle for first place Kam River prevailed with Jeremy Dunmore leading the way. Dunmore struck for three–two of them on the powerplay–as the Walleye shutout Dryden 7-0 for their 4th win in a row.
Ashton Sadauskas picked up his 7th win and second shutout with a 26-save effort. Sadauskas hasn’t lost since Sep. 22.
Dunmore polished off a tic-tac-toe powerplay with Nicholas Fagnilli and Riley Borody midway through period one for a 1-0 Kam River lead. Max Wright batted the puck out of the air on a backhand at 17:00 for a two-goal spread and Dunmore converted Ryan Doucette’s feed with 24 seconds left to make it 3-0.
Dunmore notched his hatty on the powerplay at 6:15 of the second with Fagnilli and Borody assisting for the periods only goal.
Borody on a Kam River man advantage, Ryan Doucette, and Edwin Liang with a second left in the game, finished off the route.
Michael O’Sullivan shouldered the loss in the Ice Dogs’ net stopping 28 of 35.
Borody had a four-point night, Fagnilli picked up three assists, Doucette had two points, and Braeden Duchesne had two assists to supplement Dunmore’s three tallies.
Kam went 3-7 on the powerplay and killed off all seven of Dryden’s chances.
Dryden took 28 of 46 penalty minutes.
Both teams have 20 points going into Saturday’s return engagement. A crowd of 675 saw this one.
Dryden 2 at Kam River 3 (SO) Saturday
Dryden scored the first two, Kam River the last three with Kaden Goodwin getting the game winner in the shootout, as the Fighting Walleye took over first place in the SI with a 3-2 win before 623 fans at Norwest Arena. Ashton Sadauskas picked up his league-leading 8th win, stopping 46 of 48, including three more in the shootout.
Dryden scored their two goals 56 seconds apart in the first period. Carson Devine collected a rebound and went crossbar and in for his 5th at 15:44. Eli Antoine scored high blocker for his 5th. Dryden outshot Kam 19-5 after their 7-0 loss on Friday.
Riley Borody scored at 17:30 of the second on a Walleye powerplay. Michael O’Sullivan made the initial save on a Nicholas Fagnilli shot, but Borody was on the doorstep to clean up the rebound and send home his 7th of the year.
Fagnilli got his 6th of the year at 5:45 of the third, ripping in a high glove side drive on another Walleye powerplay, to tie the game.
Dryden outshot Kam River 44-26 in regulation time, and 4-3 in five-minute overtime.
McLaren Paulsen, Carson Devine and Lazarus Constant were denied by Sadauskas in the resulting shootout.
Liang shot wide on Kam’s first try. Goodwin made good on his attempt, going backhand five-hole for the game winner.
O’Sullivan stopped 27 of 29 in the loss. Fagnilli was the only two-point man in the game. Kam River was 2-4 on the powerplay, and shut down Dryden in their two powerplays. Dryden took 22 penalty minutes to Kam River’s 18.
Fort Frances 3 at Red Lake 6 Friday
Red Lake built a 6-1 lead en route to a 6-3 win over Fort Frances on Friday. Nathan Dann marched up the leaderboard with three goals and an assist and Landon van Engelen had three helpers to spur the Miners.
Dann scored unassisted at 4:10 of the first, beating Noah Davis five-hole to open the scoring. Ryker Watt tied the game at 13:13 of the second on a cross-ice feed from Trever Sanderson. Gabe Tanton finished off a two-on-oh at 15:20 and Ty Genik got his SIJHL first with a tough angle goal at 16:29 to give Red Lake a 3-1 margin heading the third.
Blake Hiltermann and Dann scored powerplay goals to open up a four goal lead, and Dann scored from the slot at 14:54 for a five-goal lead. Josh Greene and Sanderson scored late in the game for Fort Frances.
Hiltermann added an assist and Bryson Carlyle had two apples for the Miners who improved to 7-5-1 with their third win in a row. Sanderson had two points for the Lakers.
Noah Davis stopped 32 of 35 for his second win, while Jack Orchard shunted aside 33 of 39.
The Lakers were 1-7 on the powerplay while Red Lake clicked twice in three tries. The Miners took 28 penalty minutes to Fort’s 18.
Fort Frances 2 at Red Lake 8 Saturday
Nathan Dann was at it again, notching his second hat trick in a row as the Miners defeated Fort Frances 8-2. Luke DeCorby assisted on all three and scored one of his own as the Miners stayed in the hunt with their 4th win in a row and are now just five points out of first place. They’re +23 on the season.
Gabe Tanton got things rolling with a shorthanded effort at 3:24 of the first. He stripped the puck at his own blue line, skated the length of the ice and beat Gunner Paradis for his second shorty of the season.
DeCorby’s knuckler past a screened Paradis put the Miners up 2-0 at 9:11 of the second. Dann got his first of the game, snapping home his 8th on a Miners’ powerplay at 17:02.
Red Lake scored the first three goals of the third to take a commanding 6-0 lead. Dann’ wrister off iron and in came at 1:20 on a Red Lake powerplay. Aiden Corbett added his 5th at 3:17. Dann completed his hat trick with a high slot snipe at 9:29.
Caige Starr broke Ethan Neitsch’s shutout bid at 11:30, Justin Gelderland replied for Red Lake, Cobe Delaney got his 6th for Fort, and Ethan Cerone clicked on Red Lake’s fourth powerplay goal with 15 seconds left to round out the scoring.
Neitsch saw his record improve to 2-3-1 with a 28-save performance. He’s second in goals against with a 1.99 mark, and among the league leaders with a .934 save percentage.
Paradis stopped 41 of 49 in the loss.
Austin Derzaph had four assists, Corbett added an assist, and Noah Tenney had two assists for Red Lake.
A total of 100 minutes of penalties were called. The Lakers took 56 minutes worth. The Miners were four for 10 with the man advantage, and killed off eight Laker powerplays, giving their special teams numbers a significant boost.
Thunder Bay 6 at Wisconsin 3 Friday
Edison Weeks scored two and assisted on a pair as the visiting North Stars defeated the Lumberjacks 6-3 in a feisty contest before 245 fans in Spooner, WI. The win was Thunder Bay’s 8th in a row.
EJ Paddington scored from the slot at 4:19 on assists from Weeks and Easton Mikus as the SI’s top line struck early. Weeks stuffed a Garren Voisey rebound at 13:14 for a two-goal lead.
Mikus connected on a wrap-around for his 13th of the year at 29 seconds of the second. Wisconsin replied with a pair of powerplay goals. Simon Davidson’s backhander and Zach Johnson’s loose puck recovery narrowed Thunder Bay’s lead to one. Weeks scored just 22 seconds later, and Nolan Desjardins poked in his second of the year a minute after Weeks to restore the three-goal lead.
Beau Helmeczi and Johnson traded goals in the third. All three of Wisconsin’s goals were powerplay markers.
Desjardin’s 5-2 goal at 9:15 of the second signaled the end of William Forrester’s night in the Wisconsin cage. Forrester stopped 19 of 24. Jakob Barcelona finished the game making 22 of 23 saves. Keenan Marks had a quiet evening facing 15 shots overall.
Marks managed to hit the scoresheet with a couple of minor penalties as well as these two teams, not noted for physical play, amassed 74 penalty minutes, with many of them coming with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Wisconsin clicked on three of six chances while killing off three Thunder Bay powerplays.
Paddington and Mikus added assists for Thunder Bay. Johnson figured in all three Wisconsin goals, scoring two of them.
Thunder Bay 4 at Wisconsin 5 (SO) Saturday
Wisconsin saw a three-goal lead evaporate, collected a late shorthanded goal to tie it, and Simon Davidson scored the lone shootout goal as the Lumberjacks beat Thunder Bay 5-4 before 289 fans in Spooner.
Rylen Freshwater stopped 51 of 55 to even his record at 2-2-0.
The Lumberjacks kept the EJ Paddington/Edison Weeks/Easton Mikus line off the scoresheet to win their 5th against seven losses and three overtime losses.
After a fractious Friday game Thunder Bay took six minor penalties to Wisconsin’s 12.
Carson Shafor opened the scoring at 13:11. New acquisition Collin Baker got his first SIJHL assist on the play. Derrand Wilcox got his first goal of the year at 17:24.
Zach Johnson recorded his 7th of the campaign at 4:34 of the second period for a 3-0 Lumberjacks’ lead. Thunder Bay’s Tyler Jordan got the next two. Jordan got his 6th on a Stars’ powerplay at 12:33, and scored again at 19:39 to narrow the Wisconsin lead to one.
Connor O’Brien netted his 4th to tie it and Eric Sheriff gave Thunder Bay its first lead of the game at 12:55 of the third. Dillon Phillips shorthanded goal with 1:08 left tied the game.
Thunder Bay outshot Wisconsin 7-3 in overtime but to no avail.
Jordan, Weeks and Paddington were unsuccessful in their showdown attempts. Phillips and Kaden Postal were thwarted by Ethan Barron. Davidson’s goal on Wisconsin’s third crack won the game.
Thunder Bay was 1-7 with the man advantage. Wisconsin was 0-1.
The Stars lost their bid to win their 9th in a row. They haven’t lost in regulation time since October 7th against Dryden.
Kenora 0 at Sioux Lookout 2 Saturday
Matthew Spencer-Dahl made 41 saves for his first shutout as the Bombers defeated Kenora 2-0. Sioux Lookout welcomed back Owen Riffel and Dayvan Bull from sick bay and both figured in the scoring. As for the Islanders, they showed signs in this one of becoming a factor with Kaden King’s 47-save performance under new head coach Nathan Bruyere. The Islanders hit double digits in shots on goal all three periods (as did Sioux Lookout).
Cedrik Robidoux went under King’s blocker at 8:14 of the first and Connor Burke’s wrap around at 16:50 of the second with assists from Riffel and Bull on a Bomber powerplay accounted for all of the game’s scoring.
Spencer-Dahl lowered his GAA to 2.22 and raised his SV% to .936 for his 3rd win.
King lowered his GAA to 4.66, but impressively raised his SV% to .933.
Kenora took just five minor penalties in this game lowering their PIMs per game to 25.6. Sioux Lookout had 18 minutes in the box.