By Gary Moskalyk
The SIJHL standings seem to change every weekend. Seven points separate the top five teams. Three points separate second place from fifth.
The SIJHL has completed 61.7 per cent of its regular season. Week 16 is an 11-game slate. Barring cancellations, the end of week 16 will complete 67.3 percent of the regular season. Eleven overtime losses and eight shootout losses–extra point losses in effect–bring the average winning percentage to .539. The league has scored 902 goals for an average of 3.73 per team per game.
On special teams the average powerplay is 20.0 per cent, the average penalty kill is 80.0 percent. There have been 34 shorthanded goals scored, and 235 powerplay goals scored in 1,174 opportunities. The league-wide average penalty minute total per team per game is 20.3 minutes.
Wisconsin 10-14-4 24 pts .429 6th GF 95 GA 129 -34 PIMs 592 PP% 14.8 PK% 78.7 at Kenora 1-26-1 3 pts .054 8th GF 55 GA 197 -142 PIMs 803 PP% 8.4 PK% 67.9 Monday – POSTPONED
Head to head: WIS 3-0-1 KEN 1-3-0
Wisconsin is 5-4-1 in their last 10.
Dillon Phillips leads the team in points with 31. He has 19 points in his last eight games. Zach Johnson has 15 points in his last 10 for a season total of 21. Nolan Fowler has 12 goals and nine assists for 21. A pair of defencemen, Ryan Kayser and Connor Corcoran have 19 and 16 points respectively.
Riley Burnett joined the Wisconsin goaltending ranks recently. The ’03 product turned in a 23-save performance against Fort Frances to close out December. William Forrester hasn’t tended goal since Dec. 2. His 573 minutes have been surpassed by Rylan Freshwater’s 661 minutes. Freshwater leads the team with a 6-4-0 record.
The Lumberjacks’ are five team goals away from 100.
On special teams Wisconsin has a 14.8% powerplay and 78.7% penalty kill. Wisconsin averages 21.1 penalty minutes per game.
Kenora has not won since game one, a shootout win against Wisconsin.
Aaron Bertschinger has 12 goals and 10 assists in 28 games. Brayden Mackay and John Paul Scaringi both have 17 points. Defenceman Braden Swampy struck for a pair last week to give him eight goals on the season.
Matthew Stephens leads a trio of Islander netminders with 767 minutes. He has the Islanders only win. Kaden King and rookie Connor Dunham-Fox have played 443 and 319 minutes respectively.
The Islanders have an 8.4% powerplay and 67.9% penalty kill. They have 803 penalty minutes and average 28.7 penalty minutes per game.
Fort Frances 5-21-3 13 pts .224 7th GF 74 GA 134 -60 PIMs 629 PP% 13.8 PK% 78.5 at Sioux Lookout 23-5-3 49 pts .790 1st GF 129 GA 69 +00 PIMs 492 PP% 24.7 PK% 88.3 Tuesday
Head to head: FFL 0-2-2 SLB 4-0-0
The Lakers winless streak sits at 11 games.
Clark Scaddan leads the team in points with 20 (10G-10A). Brady Krentz is a point behind with nine goals and 10 helpers. Jack Wood has 17 points, and Australian-born Brody Lindal, acquired from Red Lake for Ryker Watt, has 16 combined points.
The Lakers have garnered points in two of the four meetings between the two clubs.
Goalie Jack Orchard will crest 1,000 minutes in his next start. He has a 3-13-1 record, with 4.35 GAA and .900 SV%. Lukas Toth is 1-6-1 with a 4.67/.888 slash line and Gunner Paradis is 1-2-1 in four starts.
The Lakers powerplay is 13.8% and their penalty kill is 78.5%.
Fort Frances has drawn 629 penalty minutes in their 29 games for an average of 21.7 minutes per game.
First place Sioux Lookout lost their first game of any sort since November 11th, a regulation 5-4 defeat against Kam River at Norwest. Their 14-game points streak remains alive and well.
Owen Riffel leads the league in goals with 24, and is 4th in scoring with 43 points. Blake Burke has 38 points and Connor Burke has 36. Dayvan Bull has 10 goals and 20 helpers for 30 points to lead all defenceman in goals and points. (Gabe Tanton of Red Lake has 21 assists). Fellow defenceman Nolan Palmer has 24 points. Jonah Smith has 21 points on 12 goals and nine assists.
Cobe Delaney and Tait Howell have 17 points each, and Owen Cotter has 16 points and has played in all 31 Bomber games. Cedrik Robidoux has 15 points.
Jack Osmond is 13-4-1 in 1,078 minutes, and brings a robust 2.23 GAA and .940 SV% to the crease. Matthew Spencer-Dahl is 7-1-2 in 618 minutes. His 1.75 GAA and .950 SV% are off the charts. Matthew Ofukany hasn’t played since Nov. 18th. He’s 3-0-0 in his three starts.
Sioux Lookout’s powerplay is 24.7 per cent and their 88.3 per cent penalty kill leads the league. The Bombers have 492 penalty minutes and their average of 15.9 minutes in the bin are fewest in the SI.
Wisconsin at Thunder Bay 20-9-3 43 pts .672 3rd GF 130 GA 104 +26 PIMs 516 PP% 19.7 PK% 82.7 Fri/Sat
Head to head: WIS 1-2-0 TBN 2-0-1
A five-game winning streak has propelled the Stars into sole possession of third place.
Edison Weeks leads the SIJHL scoring race with 48 points, three ahead of linemates Easton Mikus and EJ Paddington. Tyler Jordan has 19 goals in 27 games. Combined with 14 assists he’s 11th in league scoring.
Weeks has 10 points in his last four games, while Jordan has six goals and six assists in his last five.
Dimitri Trahiotis has missed one game while compiling 21 points. Cohen Tangedal and defenceman Drew Caddo have 17 points each. Beau Helmeczi, nine goals, 14 points, and Cameron Dial, 12 assists, 14 points, are next in line.
Newcomer Alex Remenda has six points in his first three games.
Rookie Ben Laurette is Thunder Bay’s newest goaltender and has a 1-0-0 record to show for it. Keenan Marks is second in league wins with 14. He leads all goaltenders with 1,192 minutes.
Thunder Bay’s powerplay is 19.7%. Their penalty kill is 82.7. The Stars average 16.1 penalty minutes per game.
Kam River 22-6-1 45 pts .776 2nd GF 144 GA 79 +65 PIMs 595 PP% 29.2 PK% 83.6 at Red Lake 20-8-2 42 pts .700 4th GF 143 GA 78 +65 PIMs 530 PP% 22.4 PK% 86.1 Fri/Sat/Sun
Head to Head: KRW 1-1-0 RLM 1-1-0
Kam River is 6-3-1 in their last 10.
Jeremy Dunmore leads the team offensively with 35 points in 28 games. Jett Mintenko and Riley Borody have 33 points each, Ryan Doucette has 31, and rookie Carter Poddubny has 30. Poddubny has scored 11 of his 15 goals on the powerplay, tops in the league.
Five of the 16 top scorers are Fighting Walleye players.
Rookie Nickolas Fagnilli and defenseman Brydon Bell have 25 points each. Fellow d-man Liam Bell has 18 assists and 21 points. Braeden Duchesne, 19, rookie Kaden Goodwin, 18, rookie defenceman Edwin Liang, 16, rookie forward Carter Nailen, 15, and yet another rookie Matteo Salvatore, has 15 points.
A deep talented offense has the Walleye +65 in goal differential.
Ashton Sadauskas has 17 wins, a 2.12 GAA and .916 SV%. He leads the league in wins. Rookie Travis VanderZwaag is 5-4-1 in his 10 starts.
Kam River is courting a 30.0% powerplay (29.2%) and they’ve killed off 83.6% of their powerplays. The Walleye average 22.0 minutes in penalties per game.
Red Lake is 9-0-1 in their last 10, but slid into 4th place over the weekend.
Aiden Corbett, December’s SIJHL forward of the month, has played in all 30 games with 20 goals and 20 assists and is in 5th spot in the scoring race. Nathan Dann continues to snipe with the best of them. He has 18 goals in just 22 games.
Luke DeCorby, rookie Noah Tenney and Gabe Tanton sit 20th, 21st and 22nd in the scoring race with 28, 27 and 27 points respectively. Defenceman Blake Hiltermann has eight goals and 25 points and 89 PIMs. Carter Deschamps, 19, Landon van Engelen, 17, newly acquired Ryker Watt, 15 points, and Matthew MacPherson and Ethan Cerone with 15 points each round out a deep line-up.
The Miners are tied with Kam River with a +65 goal differential.
Number one goaltender Ethan Neitsch has not played since December 12th. Noah Davis has been carrying much of the load since. He’s 8-2-0 with a 2.86 GAA and .898 SV%. Jackson Pundyk, acquired from the Carleton Place Canadiens of the CCHL on January 5th, won his lone start allowing three goals.
Red Lake’s powerplay is 22.4%, the penalty kill is 86.1%.
The Miners average 17.7 minutes per game in the box.
Fort Frances at Dryden 20-13-2 42 pts .600 5th GF 132 GA 112 +20 PIMs 629 PP% 24.0 PK% 76.9 Friday
Head to head: FFL 1-3-0 DRY 3-1-0
Dryden is 4-5-1 in their last 10 despite a three-game winning streak.
Max Roby hit 20 goals last weekend, one of five SIJHL players to reach those heights. McLaren Paulsen also has 20. Roby has 36 points, Paulsen has 33. Eli Antoine has 29 points in 34 games. Bryce Benfield has 28 points in just 21 games with 67 penalty minutes. Carson Devine and Sean Smith have played in all 35 Dryden games and have 24 points apiece. Rylan Maier’s recent hat trick against Kenora gives him 10 goals to with 11 assists. Defenceman Sebastiano Biagi has 20 points in 27 contests. Defenceman Tag Bryson has 17 assists and 19 points.
Ewan Soutar is 10-6-1 with a 2.46 GAA and .919 SV% in 1,049 minutes. Newcomer Christian Lynch allowed one goal in his win against Kenora, stopping 16 of 17.
Dryden has a 24.0% powerplay and a 76.9% penalty kill. Their seven shorthanded markers tie them with Red Lake for tops in the league.
Dryden averages 21.6 penalty minutes per game.
Kenora at Fort Frances Saturday
Head to head: KEN 0-3-1 FFL 4-0-0
Sioux Lookout at Dryden Saturday
Head to head: SLB 4-0-1 DRY 1-3-1