By Gary Moskalyk
Red Lake 2 at Dryden 1
Ethan Nietsch outdueled Ewan Soutar in the battle of two of the SIJHL’s premiere goaltenders as the Red Lake Miners survived a late scare forging a 2-1 road win over the Dryden Ice Dogs. The win places the streaking Miners–8-1-1 in their last 10–one point behind Dryden for third place, one point ahead of Thunder Bay, now in fifth place, and five points back of first place Kam River and Sioux Lookout.
The Miners close out the year with a pair of road tilts against struggling Kenora so could improve to third before the calendar year ends.
The top five teams are within five points of each other atop the SIJHL standings.
Carter Deschamps put one through the legs of Soutar at 12:48 on a Miner powerplay to open the scoring, giving the Miners a 1-0 lead.
It stayed that way for nearly two periods. Preston Tauter’s wrist shot from the point sailed in uncontested past a screened Soutar, as the Miners went ahead 2-0 at 10:26 of the third. It was Tauter’s first snipe of the season.
Red Lake drew a late penalty and Dryden pulled Soutar for an extra attacker for a six-on-four. The move paid off. Carson Devine’s one-timer from the point went straight in through traffic with 1:33 left to break Nietsch’s shutout and more importantly pull the Ice Dogs to within a goal.
Red Lake shut the door from there.
Nietsch stopped 18 of 19 and raised his record to 7-5-2. Soutar faced 31 shots in the Dryden net. Both goalies sport a goals against average of 2.16.
Red Lake was 1-6 on the powerplay, while Dryden was 1-5. The Miners took 10 minutes in penalties to Dryden’s 32. Attendance was 213.
Thunder Bay 1 at Kam River 6 Friday
Kam River scored two unanswered goals in the second period and three more in the third to break open in 1-1 tie and defeat Thunder Bay 6-1 before 647 fans at Norwest Arena. Ashton Sadauskas picked up his 15th win with 31 saves.
The Walleye organization collected food for the Rural Food Cupboard and Thunder Bay Association firefighters were on hand to collect money and toys for the popular Toys for Tots program.
Braeden Duchesne’s glove side snipe got Kam River on the board at 16:31 of the first. The powerplay marker was Duchesne’s 11th. Beau Helmeczi replied for Thunder Bay just 20 seconds later. Helmeczi’s bullet from the slot was his 7th.
Sadauskas closed the door after that, and the Walleye four line attack poured in the next five for win number 20 and a share of first place.
Jeremy Dunmore scored the game-winner, corralling a loose puck and backhanding it past Thunder Bay’s Keenan Marks for his 17th. Jacob Sargent’s point shot went straight in for his first of the year midway through the second for a 3-1 win lead.
Carter Nailen scored on a breakaway, Ryan Doucette counted on the powerplay and Max Wright got his 3rd of the year to close out the Kam River scoring.
Marks was pulled after Kam River’s fifth goal after stopping 30 of 35. Ethan Barron came in on relief, letting in Wright’s goal while making six saves. Sadauskas raised his record to 15-1-0, lowered his goals against to 2.24, and raised his save percentage to .910 in the win.
The Walleye were 2-5 on the powerplay while Thunder Bay was shut out in four tries. Kam took 30 of the 47 penalty minutes–with two misconducts making it seem worse than it was.
Sioux Lookout’s overtime win allowed the Bombers to keep pace in the race for first place.
Kam River 3 at Thunder Bay 4 (OT) Saturday
Kam River built an early 3-0 lead, but a late third period powerplay goal by Easton Mikus tied the game, and an early overtime marker by Mikus won it as the Thunder Bay completed the comeback with a 4-3 win over Kam River before 912 fans at the Gardens.
The Kam River loss combined with a Sioux Lookout win allowed the Bombers to take over first place heading into Christmas break. For the Stars it was an emotional victory even beyond the normal cross-town rivalry. Former Walleye head coach Matt Valley was at the helm of the North Stars bench with regular Stars’ head coach Rob DeGagne out of town. It was a much needed win for Thunder Bay. The North Stars are just 3-5-2 in their last 10, after reeling off a 15-game point streak earlier in the season.
Braeden Duchesne cashed a rebound at 3:57 of the first for a 1-0 Walleye lead. Liam Bell’s slap shot from the point made it 2-0. Just 18 seconds into the second period Jett Mintenko stickhandled his way into the clear and buried his 15th past Keenan Marks for a three-goal edge. In dire need of the next goal Thunder Bay’s Tyler Jordan answered, powering his way deep into the Kam River zone going high over Travis VanderZwaag’s shoulder from a sharp angle. Jordan’s 14th was a shorthanded marker.
Defenceman Drew Caddo’s goal from the point at 51 seconds of the third period pulled the Stars to within a goal. Kam River took a penalty late in the third and the Stars capitalized. Thunder Bay pulled Marks for an extra attacker with 2:25 left for a six-on-four. Mikus scored from the slot with 91 seconds left to tie the match at three-all.
Overtime lasted 13 seconds. Jordan dug out a loose puck from behind the Kam net, fed Mikus, and the 16-year-old pulled the trigger for his 19th of the year.
Marks made 24 saves to raise his record to 12-6-1. His 1,072 net minutes lead the league. VanderZwaag saved 21 of 25.
Kam River was 0-4 on the powerplay. Thunder Bay was 1-3. Thunder Bay drew 19 of 36 penalty minutes.
Red Lake 5 at Kenora 2 Friday
Red Lake opened up a 3-0 lead and traded goals from there, climbing into a third place tie with Dryden with a 5-2 win over Kenora. The Miners, on a nine-game points streak, have four games in hand on the Ice Dogs.
Aiden Corbett tipped in Gabe Tanton’s shot to account for the only goal of the first. Ethan Cerone tucked in a rebound at 7:01 of the second on a Red Lake powerplay and Landon van Engelen beat Kaden King on a breakaway to give the Miners the 3-0 edge.
Kenora played one of their better games overall this year. Grayson Chell, on a recent tear, got his 4th of the year on a tip in to make it a two-goal Red Lake lead. Luke DeCorby scored at 12:00 on a nifty dangle and Carter Deschamps added more insurance at 16:12 to put the game away for Red Lake.
Braden Swampy rounded out the scoring with 53 seconds left, getting his 4th of the year for the Islanders.
Noah Davis collected his 5th win against one loss. Kaden King shouldered the loss in the Kenora net. Deschamps also had an assist and Tanton had two helpers for Red Lake.
The Miners took 12 of 22 penalty minutes.
Both teams take the trip down the highway to Vermillion Bay, ON for Saturday’s tilt.
Red Lake 9 at Kenora 2 in Vermillion Bay, ON Saturday
The Red Lake Miners joined the .700 Club with a 9-2 thrashing of Kenora. Red Lake ran their undefeated-in-regulation streak to 10 games, pushing their winning percentage to .704. They have 38 points, good for third place in the SIJHL standings.
Aiden Corbett scored two goals, Blake Hiltermann had a goal and two helpers and Noah Tenney had three assists to pace a 63-shot attack. Foxx McColl and Luke DeCorby chipped in with two assists each. Only three Miners out of 18 were held pointless.
Kenora defenceman Braden Swampy had both goals for Kenora. Aaron Bertschinger assisted on both of them.
The Miners led 4-0 after one period, and built a 7-0 lead before Swampy scored on the powerplay at 16:17 of the second period to break Noah Davis shutout bid.
Davis stopped 23 of 25 for his 7th win. Connor Dunham-Fox made 54 saves and lost his 4th in five appearances.
Landon van Engelen, Gabe Tanton, Nathan Dann and Brody Lindal had first period goals. Corbett, Andrew Sikora on a Red Lake powerplay, and Corbett again, shorthanded, with his 20th, made it 7-0. Swampy’s goal at 16:17 made it 7-1.
Swampy’s second goal made it 7-2 at 8:00 of third. Hiltermann got his 7th of the year, and Preston Tauter tallied with one second left in the game on Miners’ powerplay to render the final decision.
A total of 62 minutes worth of infractions were called–Kenora took 34 penalty minutes to Red Lake’s 28. The Miners were 2-10 on the powerplay while the Islanders were 1-8.
Wisconsin 3 at Fort Frances 2 (OT) Friday
Marshall Thomas scored at 2:12 of overtime as visiting Wisconsin defeated Fort Frances 3-2. The teams journey to Rice Lake, WI–the first of two at the Rice Lake Hockey Arena on the year–to complete the 2023 portion of their schedules to be played on Saturday.
Rylen Freshwater improved to 4-4-0, stopping 41 of 43, for the Lumberjacks win, while Gunner Paradis shunted aside 36 of 39 in one of his better starts of the year for the Lakers.
Wisconsin’s Collin Baker opened the scoring at 17:15 of the first on a Wisconsin powerplay, using a stutter step to clear his path, then rifling in his 6th glove side on Paradis for the lead.
Fort Frances stormed back with the first two of the second period.
Brandon Gustafson celebrated his first SIJHL goal, banking one in off Freshwater from a tough angle at 10:54. Emerson Evans clicked on a Lakers’ three-on-one at 13:44 for a 2-1 edge. Wisconsin’s William McDonnel tied it with a long shot at 16:37 to make it two-all after two periods.
There was no scoring in the third. Wisconsin had the only three shots in overtime. Thomas won the game on a Wisconsin two-on-one. Connor Corcoran collected the lone assist on the play. Wisconsin’s win opens up a seven-point lead over the Lakers in the battle for 6th place.
Four 10-minute misconducts swelled the penalty minutes to 58–32 of them to Wisconsin. Wisconsin was 1-2 with man advantage while the Lakers were 0-6.
Fort Frances 1 at Wisconsin 3 in Rice Lake, WI Saturday
Goalie Riley Burnett made his SIJHL debut a successful one as the Wisconsin Lumberjacks defeated Fort Frances 3-1 before 336 fans in Rice Lake, WI.
Clark Scaddan put the Lakers on the board at 7:58 of the second period with a high glove side shot on a 4-on-4. Sutton Majeske blocked a dump in at centre ice, stickhandled past a Laker defender and put it home at 10:12 to knot the score.
The Lumberjacks notched a pair of powerplay goals in the third. A Ryan Kayser shot from the high slot got past a screened Lukas Toth proved to be the game winner. Kayser’s 4th was scored at 14:38. Dillon Phillips put the game away with 45 seconds left with a breakaway tally.
Burnett, an ’05 goaltender with Shattuck St. Mary’s roots, last played for the Louisiana Drillers of the NA3HL, compiling a 4-3-0 record with a 2.33 GAA and .910 SV%. He stopped 27 of 28. He joins Rylan Freshwater and William Forrester on the Wisconsin goalie roster.
Toth saw his record drop to 1-5-1 while facing 38 shots.
The Lumberjacks killed off six Fort Frances powerplays while scoring on two of their four chances. The Lakers took 28 of 54 penalty minutes called by referees Brett Koslowski and Anthony Prodominick.
Sioux Lookout 3 at Dryden 2 (OT) Friday
Nolan Palmer’s high slot wrister at 48 seconds of overtime on a Bomber powerplay secured Sioux Lookout’s dramatic 3-2 win over Dryden before 487 fans in Dryden. The Bombers collected all three of their goals on the powerplay.
The Bombers ninth consecutive win gives them a share of first place atop the SIJHL standings.
After a scoreless first the teams exchanged two goals each in the second frame. McLaren Paulsen broke the ice for Dryden at 5:47, notching his 19th on a breakaway backhander past Jack Osmond. Palmer was credited with Sioux Lookout’s game tyer. Bryce Benfield got a piece of Eli Antoine’s shot for his 10th goal of the year at 11:25 for a 2-1 Dryden lead. Owen Riffel tucked in Palmer’s bullet after Dryden’s Ewan Soutar got a piece of the puck but not all of it. Riffel’s 21st of the season came on a Sioux Lookout powerplay.
The third period was another scoreless one. Only 12 shots total were recorded in the stanza.
Palmer settled the affair early in extra time with Dryden down a man. Connor Burke and Dayvan Bull collected assists on the play. The Bombers controlled play throughout the overtime.
Osmond recorded his 10th win, while Soutar fell to an 8-4-1 record.
The Bombers were 3-7 with the man advantage while Dryden was 1-2. The Ice Dogs took 16 of 20 penalty minutes assessed.
The teams travel to Sioux Lookout to complete the weekend series.
Dryden 1 at Sioux Lookout 5 Saturday
Sioux Lookout ended the 2023 portion of the SIJHL schedule in first place, completing a weekend sweep with a 5-1 win over visiting Dryden. The Bombers have won 10 in a row.
Owen Riffel scored a hat trick and picked up an assist to lead a 45-shot Bomber attack. Connor Burke had a goal and assist and Blake Burke garnered three helpers as the line crested the 100-point plateau for a total of 106 points on the season, led by Riffel’s league-leading 42 points and 24 goals.
Connor Burke tucked in a rebound at 12:46 of the first for a 1-0 Sioux Lookout lead. Owen Riffel’s steal led to an unassisted tally at 3:15 of the second. Tag Bryson’s point shot beat Jack Osmond at 16:08, Dryden’s only goal of the game. Osmond went on to stop 32 of 33 for win number 11.
In the latter stages of the third frame Sioux poured it on. Riffel got his second of the game at 12:11 on a Bomber powerplay, Ty Lone batted in his third at 13:13 and Riffel’s one-timer on a Sioux Lookout powerplay at 15:05 salted away the win in a productive 2:54 span.
Ewan Soutar took the loss for Dryden, dropping to 8-5-1 on the year. Osmond dropped his goals against to 2.44 and raised his save percentage to .936 in the Bomber cage.
Sioux Lookout was 2-6 with the man advantage, killing off all four Dryden powerplays. Dryden took seven minor penalties to Sioux Lookout’s four.
Attendance at the Hangar was 493.