SIJHL WEEK 7 REVIEW
Wisconsin 3 @ Kam River 4 Wed Nov 2 FEATURE GAME
Euan Morrison capped off a third period rally as the Kam River Fighting Walleye defeated the visiting Wisconsin Lumberjacks 4-3 at Norwest Arena. Staring down the barrel of their third straight loss Kam River scored three in the third.
Braeden Duchesne tied the game at 2-2 at 3:44 of the third. Zach Carson scored his 11th of the campaign to put Wisconsin up 3-2 with 6:50 left. Jeremy Dunmore re-tied it by sliding one past Kyler Lowden at 15:06. Morrison sniped a one-timer top shelf at 18:20 for the game winner.
“Being a rookie in this league, making the jump up from Junior B , it’s been tough,” said Morrison, who scored his fourth of the year. “Everyone’s bigger, the game’s been faster, goalies are better.”
Morrison’s the most recent Walleye to provide the winning marker in a one-goal game.
“Benny (Simon Bienvenue) grabbed it, over to Doucette on the far side. Came in on a two-on-one. Their d-man went over to him. Doucette made a nice little saucer pass to me. I just took a little one-timer and put it in the net,” said Morrison, as the Walleye climbed to 11-4-1.
The Walleye entertain Sioux Lookout in a Saturday only tilt.
Wisconsin took a 1-0 lead in the first. Zach Johnson tallied at 17:00 with assists to Ryder McMillan and Dylan Jouppi. Caden Sutter upped the margin to 2-0 at 4:30 of the second. Bienvenue tallied for Kam late in the second to make it a one-goal game.
Wisconsin led the game or was tied for 58:20 of the game.
“We feel we have a lot to figure out as a team,” said Kam River head coach Matt Valley. “I have to give credit to a lot of guys in that dressing room who, at the end of the day, got it done. We probably had 50 shots at that kid today. Lowden is a really top goalie, one of the top goalies in the league, but if he can see the puck it’s going to be an easy night for him, no matter how good or bad he is.
“We had the same problem as Sioux Lookout. (Jake) Manners saw all 50 shots we threw at him. Same message, same message, same message is falling on deaf ears,” Valley continued.
“Frustrated as we are as a staff right now, at the end of the day we got a win. I don’t think we’re playing up to our potential, but we’re getting wins and that’s awesome. . . We had way too many chances to have to come back from a 3-2 deficit. A lot of things to work on. A lot of positives.”
Jack Orchard made 23 saves to garner the win, while Lowden faced 45 shots in the Lumberjacks’ cage.
McMillen had a goal and assist for Wisconsin to up his season haul to 26 points on the campaign.
Bienvenue had a helper as did Morrison, and Ryan Doucette had two helpers to account for the two-point players on Kam River.
Wisconsin was whistled for three minors. Kam River had a rare clean sheet in that regard. Norwest Arena attracted 300 fans for the contest.
Wisconsin, 5-7-1, was loading up their bus for the trip back to Spooner. They entertain the Red Lake Miners on Friday and Saturday.
“Fifty good minutes of hockey. I think any hockey person that watched that game sees it the same way,” said Wisconsin head coach Doug Lein. “We absolutely let them dominate us the last four minutes of the second and the last six minutes of the third.
“It comes down to guys in our dressing room figuring things out, and we’re just not there yet,” he added. “We’ve got a great group. It’s right there. We’ve lost, short of the 4-1 loss to Thunder Bay, five one-goal games in our last six, something like that. Gotta figure out how to get over the top. We have no problem scoring. We have to figure out how to stop teams.”
Red Lake 4 @ Wisconsin 3, Red Lake 3 @ Wisconsin 2 Fri/Sat Nov 4/5
Red Lake swept Wisconsin by a goal each game. An incredible six of Wisconsin’s nine losses have been by a goal.
In Friday’s game, Kyle Schechtel scored at 16:13 of the third to break a 3-3 tie and give Red Lake a 4-3 win at Spooner Civic Center.
Dylan Olsen opened the scoring with a Wisconsin goal at 29 seconds of the first. Jacob Lamoureux would tie it up on a Red Lake powerplay and Carter Albrecht would give the visitors a 2-1 lead after 20.
Trever Sanderson scored the only goal of the second on a feed from Mason Mowat. Lamoureux collected the secondary assist.
Wisconsin answered with the first two goals of the third. Ryder McMillen scored number 10 of the season at 7:02, and Drake Flynn, a new acquisition in his first game, tied up the contest.
Schechtel’s dagger at 16:13 put the game away.
Jack Osmond picked up his fifth win of the season with 33 saves. Emmett Doherty turned aside 28 of 32.
Zach Carson had two assists for Wisconsin. Lamoureux and Sanderson added assists and Colten Hlavay had two assists for Red Lake.
The Miners scored the two powerplay goals on six chances. Wisconsin was 0-2.
247 fans attended.
Saturday’s contest featured two goals and an assist from Red Lake’s Jacob Lamoureux. The 5-8, ’04 forward from Sherwood Park, AB leads the SIJHL with 13 goals.
After a scoreless first, Lamoureux counted at 5:30 of the second. Connor Hacker tied it up, and then fed Dillon Phillips, who bulged the twine at 11:54 for a 2-1 Lumberjacks’ lead. Lamoureux’s second of the game knotted the score at 2-all.
Andrew Benedetti scored the game winner at 9:17 of the third. Lamoureux collected his fourth assist giving 17 points on the year, good for fourth in league scoring.
Wisconsin pulled starter William Forrester with 1:12 remaining, but couldn’t equalize. Forrester faced 34 shots, while Osmond reeled in win number six with a 36-save performance.
Osmond tops the goalie leaderboard with a 2.47 GAA and .933 save percentage.
Red Lake was 0-2 with the man advantage. Wisconsin did not have a powerplay.
Aiden Corbett had two assists on the night for Red Lake.
The Spooner Civic Center had 307 fans.
Dryden 2 @ Sioux Lookout 4 Fri Nov 4
The Bombers improved to 8-4-0, snapping Dryden’s eight-game winning streak with a 4-2 win at the Hangar.
Third period goals by Blake Burke on the powerplay and Nolan Palmer, the game’s only even strength goal, settled things in Sioux Lookout’s favour as the teams exchanged a goal each in the first and second periods.
Jake Manners stopped 23 of 25 for the win in net, while Eric Clark faced 26 shots in the Dryden net.
Dryden drew 69 penalty minutes. Sioux Lookout logged 37 PIMs in a physical affair before 469 fans.
Five of the goals were powerplay markers. Dryden was 2-13, while Sioux Lookout was 3-12 with the man advantage.
Sioux Lookout’s Lucas Trimarchi and Dryden’s Ben Hackl scored on the PP in the first. The Bombers’ Phil Parker and Ice Dogs’ James Hooton second period powerplay goals.
Sioux Lookout 3 @ Kam River 6 Sat Nov 5
Kam River announced Friday that head coach Matt Valley was done. Citing the need for a full-time coach. Valley leaves the franchise as its only bench boss, going 49-12-2-1 lifetime, winning coach-of-the-year last year.
Undaunted, assistant coach Vern Ray and GM Kevin McCallum guided the Walleye to their 12th win of the year, a 6-3 win over Sioux Lookout.
Six different marksmen scored for the Fighting Walleye. Euan Morrison scored the only goal of the first period, and Max Buffone and Max Leduc upped the Kam River lead to 3-0 by mid-game. Back-to-back powerplay goals by Tegan Neuman and Lucas Trimarchi narrowed the gap to one. Jack Cook countered at 19:04 of the second to give Kam a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
Logan Gallagher tallied his fifth to restore a three-goal margin, Neuman notched his second of the game 1:27 later for the Bombers, and Mackenzie Sedgwick scored shorthanded and unassisted at 13:34 to settle the final score.
Eric Vanska stopped 34 of 37 for his league-leading eighth win of the year. Kam River pelted Jake Manners for 52 shots. Manners is now 6-4-0.
A total of 30 infractions were called in the second and third frames. The Bombers picked up 85 penalty minutes in the game while the Walleye registered 70. Sioux Lookout had 13 chances with the man advantage, clicking twice, while the Walleye were 0-3. Neuman’s two goals paced the Bomber attack, while Leduc and Morrison added assists to their point totals. Jeremy Dunmore and Ryan Doucette had two helpers each.
Norwest Arena drew 474 patrons.
Red Lake 3 @ Fort Frances 5 Sun Nov 6
With Red Lake on a three-games-in-three-nights roadie and Fort Frances well rested, this game had the trappings of a potential Laker win.
Dominique Cyr scored in the first, Kevin Bond and Ethan Elgie added in the second, and Dylan Wedword registered the first goal of the third as the Lakers jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held on for a 5-3 win at Ice For Kids Arena in Fort Frances.
Ryan Tanner stopped all 29 shots in the first two periods and turned aside 12 more in the final frame for his first win of the season. He was named first star.
Special teams were pretty special: Red Lake scored two on the powerplay and one shorthanded–all in the third, and Fort notched four of five on the powerplay.
Austin Derzaph and Jacob Lamoureux scored for Red Lake at 5:19 and 9:12 of the third to add a little drama to the proceedings. Clark Scaddan added a Laker powerplay marker at 17:30. Aiden Corbett scored shorthanded for Red Lake at 19:12 to render the final verdict.
Jaxson Taupert stopped 31 of 36 to shoulder the loss in the Miner net.
Lamoureux leads the SI with 14 goals. He has seven goals in his last five games. Eight different Miners registered a point.
Elgie, Cyr and Bond added assists and Ryker Watt had two helpers for Fort Frances. Ten different Lakers had at least a point.
The Miners were 2-6 with man advantage, while Fort Frances went 4-7.
The game attracted 250 fans.