By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay, ON – Thunder Bay scored three goals by 6:31 of the first, got plenty of secondary scoring, and Ben Laurette collected his 4th win as the North Stars defeated Wisconsin 7-4 before 363 fans at the Fort William Gardens.
Cohen Tangedal got things started at 1:01, picking up a loose puck and scoring his 10th unassisted. Tristen Bear accepted a perfect backhand pass from Dimitri Trahiotis and rifled in his 4th past Riley Burnett for a 2-0 lead. Edison Weeks delivered a cross-ice pass to Cameron Dial who then buried his 4th from a fairly sharp angle on a Stars’ power play to complete the early barrage for a 3-0 Thunder Bay lead.
The teams shared five goals in the second. Ryan Kayser got Wisconsin on the board three seconds into a Lumberjacks’ powerplay, going glove side on Laurette after Dillon Phillips’ clean face-off win deep in Stars territory. Thunder Bay’s EJ Paddington wrap-around goal just 17 seconds later re-established a three-goal North Stars margin. The Lumberjacks’ powerplay blitzkrieged the Stars penalty kill for a second time, this time nine seconds in, as Collin Baker jammed in his 13th of the year at 12:20 to narrow the lead to 4-2.
The Stars’ Connor Larrett got the goal back 25 seconds later on a tic-tac-toe, and Alex Remenda gave Thunder Bay a 6-2 lead 54 seconds after Larrett’s goal, deflecting Sam Skillestad’s point shot for his 6th at 13:39 of the middle frame.
Dillon Phillips got his 20th unassisted for Wisconsin at 8:55 of the third to make it 6-3. Garren Voisey got his second of the year on a Stars 3-on-2 to make it 7-3. Kaden Postal got his 10th on a Wisconsin power play at 18:40 for the 7-4 final score.
Larrett, Paddington, Remenda, Tangedal and Dial all had a goal and an assist for Thunder Bay. Weeks added two helpers to pump his league-leading totals in points to 60, and assists to 38.
Phillips had a goal and two assists for Wisconsin, pushing him to 48 points on the season, good for 6th in the SIJHL scoring race. Postal had an assist in addition to his goal, and Nolan Fowler had two apples for Wisconsin.
Laurette improved to 4-0-0 on the year, making 38 saves, many from in close. Burnett dropped to 3-4-1 with his 30-saves on 37 shots.
Wisconsin was 3-8 on the powerplay, while Thunder Bay was 2-6. The Stars took eight minors to Wisconsin’s six.
Thunder Bay climbed to within a point of second-place Kam River with the win.