By Gary Moskalyk
Record: 18-28-6 44 Pts .407% 6th GF 196 GA 223 -27 PP 19.7% PK 78.2% Playoff Result: 2nd Round Exit
Key Players Lost 2002: F Ryder McMillen 29-42-71, D Zach Carson 26-32-58, F Salvatore Poggiali 16-29-45, D Dylan Jouppi 3-28-31, F Brandon McDonald 8-18-26, D Connor Hacker 6-14-20, F Drake Flynn 7-10-17, G Kyler Lowden 15-17-5 3.87 .894.
Returning Players: G William Forrester, D Kaden Postal, D Axel Wyatt, D Ryan Kayser, F Simon Davidson, F Zach Johnson, F Dillon Phillips.
Goalies: Forrester 1-6-0 5.16 .875, Jakob Barcelona 5-3-0 2.63 .891 Northwest Stars NAPHL 18U, Rylan Freshwater 9-13-1 with 4 iterations of the Maine Nordiques 18U AAA.
Wisconsin won its first playoff series last season, a seven-game thriller against Sioux Lookout on enemy ice in overtime. In a way, a fitting end for a team that struggled for much of the season in one-goal games. Head coach Doug Lein would often talk about those heartbreakers during his visits in Thunder Bay–and laugh at the improbable nature of such a prolonged streak (through Feb. 11th, Wisconsin was 1-13 in one-goal games, and had a nine-game one-goal losing streak packed in there for good measure). In a way, the final laugh was that series clinching win at the Hangar in Sioux Lookout.
“A hundred percent. A hundred per cent. That play-off series against Sioux Lookout . . . It’s all well and good to say you’re not a 6th place team, but we were a 6th place team. I think the guys started to buy in, started to find balance with where we were instead of just relying on a handful of guys and expecting them to carry the team. We made some strides with that and left some on the table.
“I don’t know if I could say enough good things about Sioux Lookout,” continued Lein. “They were a top two or three team last year. Carson (Johnstone, head coach Sioux Lookout) had those guys absolutely buzzing.”
Lein considered the Wisconsin/Sioux Lookout series–with a nod to the seven-game final between Thunder Bay and Kam River–to be of the highest order.
“You want to see playoff hockey? You don’t have to look any further than our series with Sioux Lookout,” he said. “We spent everything we had in that series.”
“Winning that series and getting over the hump was huge for us going into this year,” continued Lein.” It set a big tone. We got a lot of culture shifts with our program in all facets, pre-season, training camp. That series was a catalyst. It would have been a catalyst to win or lose.”
For the Lumberjacks, it was their first season without COVID-19 casting a shadow over hockey.
Against the eventual league champion Fighting Walleye, Wisconsin won game four at home in double-overtime. Now entering their fourth campaign, the Lumberjacks are looking to build on their first taste of playoff success.
They’ll be attempting to do that minus League MVP Ryder McMillen. Offensive dynamo defenceman/forward Zach Carson, captain Salvatore Poggiali, offensive defenceman Dylan Juoppi, and goalie Kyler Lowden all represent some daunting holes to fill.
The Lumberjacks are the youngest team in the league at 18.43 years as their average age. Their average height–6’0″ and weight–177 are bang on league average.
Among the recruits, Maddox Achtor, a 2006 forward out of Hayward High, had 22 goals in 23 games. Koen Burkholder, an ’05 forward, had 28 goals and 16 helpers with Traverse City High last year. Canadian Nolan Fowler out of Calgary, AB, had 53 points in 56 games with the Valley Wildcats out in Nova Scotia. Defenceman Gavin Spears, an ’03 player, logged 66 penalty minutes in 28 games with the Nashville Spartans of the USPHL Elite League.
Wisconsin had an extensive Western Canada exhibition slate last year, contrasted with no exhibition games this year.
The sun rises a little higher this year for Doug Lein and the 2023-24 Lumberjacks.
“I feel really good. I feel good about ourselves. That’s not comparing us to anybody else in the league . . . internally I feel really good about the guys we have. Not to put down any groups we’ve had in the past,” he said.
“There’s a really different attitude here, a different mentality of buying in. Everybody’s bought into the program, bought into each other. With eight teams you want to have a top-four seed. To have that home ice in the first round makes it so important. This group has some special stuff in them.”
Poggiali’s overtime winner changed the franchise around.
“It’s hard to forget about 17 one-goal games. You don’t want to be with that all off-season. I’ll take the opportunity to wipe that slate clean.”
The Lumberjacks open the season on the road, christening the expansion Kenora Islanders franchise. They host Sioux Lookout at home September 29 and 30.