By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay, ON – Max Roby scored at 16:57 of the third and Landen Stromme added an empty net insurance marker as the Dryden Ice Dogs defeated the Thunder Bay North Stars 5-3 at Fort William Gardens. A crowd of 310 witnessed a cleanly played game with just five minor penalties.
Kaden Bandura notched his first as an Ice Dog firing high on Keenan Marks’ glove side. Noah Broughton replied at 12:03 with his 7th. Ben Hackl’s 6th of the year gave Dryden a 2-1 lead heading to the dressing room.
Dryden surrendered three leads in the contest.
Evan Lachimea scored his first goal as a North Star in his first game to tie it at two-all going high blocker side on Dryden netminder Zac Macdonald. Stromme scored his 13th of the year and first of the game 43 seconds later to give Dryden a 3-2 edge. Edison Weeks wristed a short-handed goal from a bad angle to tie it back up again.
Eric Clark came on in relief of MacDonald and did not surrender a goal in his 32:53 of play. He stopped all 31 shots sent his way. MacDonald was good on 20 of 23.
Marks suffered his first regulation loss of the year, handling 42 of 46.
Landon Stromme’s 2 goals secured 1st star of the game.
Evan Lachimea’s first tally was good enough for 2nd star.
Kaden Bandura earned 3rd star with a goal and an assist.
The teams will tangle again Wednesday, immune from the anticipated snowstorm that canceled Fort Frances’ trip to Wisconsin.