By Gary Moskalyk
Thunder Bay 3 @ Red Lake 2, Thu Jan 5
Garren Voisey scored his first goal as a North Star midway through the third as the visitors from Thunder Bay overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Red Lake 3-2. Keenan Marks snagged 35 of 37 to improve his record to 6-1-1 on the season. His counterpart, Jack Osmond, diverted 56 of 59 shots in the loss.
Neither team had a full complement of players. Thunder Bay iced 14 while Red Lake had 15 skaters dressed.
Ty Woodward opened the scoring at 13:57 of the first on a Red lake powerplay. Luke Decorby added an unassisted marker at 8:11 of the second. Dimitri Trahiotis notched his 10th on a Thunder Bay powerplay to pull the North Stars to within one.
Thunder Bay bagged two unanswered goals in the third.
Nolan Desjardins scored at 4:15 to tie it. Voisey’s long point shot at 11:02 of the third got through Osmond and proved to be the game winner.
Thunder Bay’s win puts them one point behind Red Lake for fourth place with four games in hand.
Marks joined the “qualified goalies” list with his 60 minutes played and now sits first in the SIJHL with a 2.14 GAA and .941 SV%. And Osmond added 58:56 to his minutes played for 1,167 on the year–first in the SI–and saw his SV% hit .930.
The North Stars entered play with six regulars out of the line-up because of injury. Forwards Jamie Fuchs, RJ Dickie, William Demkiw, Dylan Winsor and Colby Feist and defenceman Carter Anton are in the infirmary. Defenceman Zach Davis played his first game of the season.
Notably, Red Lake’s Jacob Lamoureux, did not play.
Thunder Bay heads off to Dryden for a pair while Red Lake has a home doubleheader against Wisconsin.
Thunder Bay 3 @ Dryden 4 (OT), Fri Jan 6: Thunder Bay @ Dryden PPD Sat Jan 7
Max Roby scored his 10th at 12:00 of the third period on a Dryden powerplay to tie the game, and Jordan Pfoh notched his 10th at 1:06 of overtime, also on a Dryden powerplay, to win it as the Ice Dogs defeated the North Stars 4-3 in front of 402 fans in Dryden.
The Ice Dogs are undefeated in six games.
Matt Halushak rifled home his seventh on a Thunder Bay powerplay late in the first for a 1-0 Stars lead. Brady Frattinger and Bryce Benfield gave the Dogs a 2-1 lead, but EJ Paddington knotted the score at 16:59 of the second.
Paddington scored his second of the game and fifth on the season midway through the third.
Roby’s 10th in his 15th game and Pfoh’s marker decided the outcome.
Dryden bombed Thunder Bay’s Conner Lemieux with 59 shots–including four in the overtime session. Eric Clark turned aside 42 shots for his 11th win of the season.
Thunder Bay was 1-10 with the man advantage, while Dryden converted two of seven.
The penalty box seats were among the warmest in the rink, as the Stars compiled 55 penalty minutes and Dryden 36 minutes. Eighteen infractions were called in the third period, two of them game misconducts to Thunder Bay.
Saturday’s contest was postponed. With an injury-depleted roster and two additional men lost to game misconducts the Thunder Bay could not ice a team. The game will be played at a later date.
Wisconsin 3 @ Red Lake 4 (SO) Fri Jan 6: Wisconsin 5 @ Red Lake 2, Sat Jan 7
Newcomer Trent Boryszczuk stopped 50 of 53 in his Red Lake debut and Aiden Corbett and Riley See both scored in the shootout as the Miners defeated the Lumberjacks 4-3 at Cochenour Arena.
Red Lake took a 2-0 lead on goals by Dobie Unrau (his first of the year) and Corbett’s ninth. Wisconsin’s Connor Hacker notched the next two, both on Wisconsin powerplays, to tie it up and Zach Johnson gave the visitors a 3-2 edge heading into the third frame.
Matthew Macpherson made it 3-3 at 1:51 of the third.
Wisconsin had five shots and Red Lake four in overtime.
Caden Sutter and Zach Carson failed in their shootout attempts for Wisconsin.
Kyler Lowden stopped 43 of 46 in the Wisconsin net.
Hacker added an assist for a three-point night. Conner McClure and Dylan Jouppi had two assists each for Wisconsin.
The Lumberjacks were 2-4 on the PP, while the Miners were 0-6.
Fifteen minor penalized were meted out–nine to Wisconsin.
On Saturday Wisconsin fell behind 2-0 but rallied with four third period goals to defeat Red Lake 5-2.
Kyle Schechtel scored unassisted at 7:31 to open the scoring for Red Lake. The teams exchanged goals in the second.
Quintyn Sidaway doubled the lead at 3:59. It was all Wisconsin after that. Connor McClure scored his first of two midway through the second stanza with 5th on assists from Ryder McMillen and Sal Poggiali.
Brandon McDonald, Timothy LeRoy, McClure and Ryan Kayser, unassisted and into an empty net, put the finishing touches on Wisconsin’s three-point weekend.
Kyler Lowden stopped 37 of 39 to even his record at 7-7-3 on the year. Trent Boryszczuk evened his record at 1-1 with 42 saves on 46 shots.
Both teams were 0-2 with the man advantage.
LeRoy added an assist for Wisconsin. McMillen and Dillon Phillips had a pair of helpers for the Lumberjacks.
Only five minor penalties were called.
Fort Frances 5 @ Sioux Lookout 9, Fri Jan 6: Fort Frances 3 @ Sioux Lookout 13, Sat Jan 7
Blake Burke had two goals and two assists and Jake Manners saved 49 shots as Sioux Lookout defeated Fort Frances 9-5 on Friday.
Ryker Watt matched Burke’s production in a losing cause.
The Lakers took an early 1-0 lead that lasted all of 33 seconds as the hometown Bombers scored seven of the next eight, putting a damper on Tyler Miller’s first game as head coach of Fort Frances.
Kevin Bond had Fort on the board 27 seconds in on helpers from Watt and Branden Hill.
Connor Burke tied it up at 1:00, and Blake Burke, Nathan Dann and Nolan Palmer had the Bombers up 4-1 through 20.
Watt had Fort on the board at 18 seconds of the second, but Blake Burke, Owen Riffel and Tyler Tykolis-Casey gave Sioux Lookout a five-goal lead by 14:09 of the second.
Ian Snooks made it 7-3 by the end of the second, and Watt sniped seven seconds into the third to make it 7-4. The Bombers would score two of the next three to finish it off. Mitchell Daines registered his second of the season, Jack Wood replied for Fort 32 seconds later. Tegan Neuman, back from injury, notched his sixth at 18:46 for the 9-5 final.
Fort Frances was 2-3 on the powerplay, while Sioux Lookout was 2-2.
Mitchell Daines added two assists for a three-point night. Nolan Palmer, Connor Burke and Owen Riffel each had a goal and an assist. Ty Bahm had two helpers for Sioux Lookout.
Bond added an assist to his goal for Fort.
Manners won his 13th of the season and upped his minutes to 1,222, tops in the SIJHL. Brendan Stroble shunted aside 33 of 42 for the Lakers.
The Hangar had 392 fans.
In Saturday’s contest Sioux Lookout broke open a 1-1 game with five unanswered goals in the first period. Ty Bahm had a hat trick and two assists, Owen Riffel scored three and neither matched Alex Lucas, who had eight assists.
The Bombers lead the SIJHL with 123 goals, and 4.39 goals per game.
Sioux Lookout fired 82 shots in the game, 31-19-32, bombarding Brenden Stroble with 55 and Ryan Tanner with 27.
Blake Burke had a goal and three assists, Tegan Neuman had a goal and two assists, while Nolan Palmer and Lucas Trimarchi chipped in with a goal and assist each. Mitchell Daines, Tyler Tykolis-Casey and Braden Clarke added solos in front of a partisan crowd of 398.
Ethan Penner won his second game in three outings. Stroble was tagged for the loss.
Fort Frances was 1-4 on the powerplay while the Bombers clicked twice in four chances.
Kevin Bond, Ian Snooks and Dylan Wedward scored for the Lakers.