By Tanner Schafer
The Wisconsin Lumberjacks were able to pull away late thanks to 2 unanswered goals in the 3rd period to secure a sweep of the Kenora Islanders.
The 1st period was a back-and-forth stalemate to start all the way through the 10-minute mark. 12 minutes in the action picked up as Kaden Postal of the Lumberjacks and Grady Priest of the Islanders were both given 5-minute majors and game misconducts for grabbing the facemask. Postal was ejected from both games in this series. Just over a minute later Dillon Phillips would open the scoring with his 8th of the season. Kenora wouldn’t stay quiet for long as they found the equalizer with just over 4 minutes left in the 1st period. Grayson Chell scored the goal with assists going to Ezekial Kirkness and Aaron Bertschinger. Before the break Kenora would take the lead on a puck deflected off a Lumberjacks player 2 minutes later. The credit for the goals was given to Chell, his 2nd of the period.
The teams played for 7 minutes in the 2nd period with the Islanders leading 2-1 before Nolan Fowler scored an unassisted goal for the Lumberjacks tying the game at 2. Kenora would find an answer taking their last lead of the night on a goal from Jayden McPherson-Nepinak at 12:46 of the 2nd. After an icing with 14 seconds remaining, it looked like the Lumberjacks were going to head into the intermission trailing but off the faceoff Sutton Majeske found Jack Carruthers in the neutral zone who beat his defender and scored his 1st of the season with 2 seconds left.
Wisconsin upped the pressure throughout the 3rd period but struggled to find a go-ahead goal. The 2 teams battled for 15 minutes before Nolan Fowler scored his 2nd of the night and 6th of the weekend to give Wisconsin the edge. With one last chance to rally Kenora pulled the goalie with just over a minute left, but Phillips would score his 2nd of the game and the Lumberjacks pulled out the 5-3 victory. Rylan Freshwater got the win in goal with 26 saves. Connor Dunham-Fox was between the pipes for Kenora and had 44 saves.
1st Star – Nolan Fowler, 2 goals and 1 assist
2nd Star – Rylan Freshwater, 26 saves on 29 shots
3rd Star – Jack Carruthers, 1 goal