Thunder Bay 1 @ Wisconsin 5, Wed Jan 18
William Forrester stopped 27 of 28 and Zach Carson had four assists as the Wisconsin Lumberjacks defeated the Thunder Bay North Stars 5-1. The win was number 10 on the year. The McClure boys, Connor and Cooper, added a goal and assist each. Cooper made a good impression, garnering first star honours in his first SIJHL game. Forrester collected his first win of the season in his first start since Dec. 10.
Connor McClure notched his 7th at 1:47 of the first, with Cooper McClure getting the primary assist, and Carson picking up his 19th helper.
Nolan Desjardins would tie it up at 4:22 with a shorthanded unassisted effort.
Wisconsin scored two in the second and two in the third. Drake Flynn and Cooper McClure counted in the middle frame. Zach Johnson scored at 8:36 of the third, and Brandon McDonald picked up his 6th on a Wisconsin powerplay at 12:21.
Dillon Phillips picked up two assists for Wisconsin.
A second period tilt saw Easton Glousher of Thunder Bay and Connor Hacker of Wisconsin receive five-minute majors and game misconducts in an otherwise rather penalty-free contest. Thunder Bay was 0-6 with the man advantage while the Jacks clicked on one of three.
Keenan Marks saved 28, absorbing his second loss against six wins and a shootout loss. He now leads the SI in save percentage (.931) and goals against (2.21). with the 60 minutes played pushing him over 600.
North Stars defenceman Sam Skillestad picked up a minor penalty in his first game.
Thunder Bay enjoys six days off. Wisconsin entertains the first-place Walleye in a weekend series.
Dryden 2 @ Sioux Lookout 3 Wed Jan 18
Sioux Lookout drew even with Dryden in the standings with a regulation time 3-2 win over the Ice Dogs. The teams have 39 points and 19 wins apiece. Dryden has a game in hand.
Jake Manners stopped 51 of 53 for his 15th win, while lowering his GAA to 2.57 and upping his save percentage to .924.
Dryden held period leads of 1-0 and 2-1.
James Hooton collected a Max Rath rebound at 7:34 for a 1-0 Dryden lead. Owen Riffel broke free at his own blue-line and scored unassisted on a breakaway to even the match at 4:40 of the second. Jack Cullen scored his first of the season 36 seconds later on the same Dryden powerplay to give Dryden the lead.
Tegan Neuman assisted on two third period goals as the Bombers pulled a playoff style win out of the fire.
Ty Bahm went top shelf on Dryden net minder Eric Clark for the game-tyer at 1:52 of the third. Shortly after a Bomber goal from long range was disallowed, Neuman made a perfect pass to Lucas Trimarchi who scored from 10 feet out for the game-winner.
Dryden had period totals of 19, 19 and 15 shots but Manners held the line. Eric Clark turned aside 29 of 32.
Dryden took 48 of 60 penalty minutes assigned. The Bombers were 0-8 with man advantage. Dryden converted one of six.
As expected, the Hangar drew a large crowd of 472.
Dryden has a weekend home-and-home with Fort Frances. Sioux Lookout travels to Red Lake for a pair against the Miners.
Kam River 6 @ Wisconsin 3 Fri Jan 20: Kam River 3 @ Wisconsin 5 Sat Jan 21
Wisconsin scored the first three, Kam River scored the last six, including four in the third, as the visiting Walleye defeated the Lumberjacks 6-3 before 304 fans at the Spooner Civic Center.
Ryder McMillen with his 19th, Simon Davidson with his first goal in his second game, and Dillon Phillips’ 10th had the crowd in a festive mood through 14:53 of the first.
Kam River’s Jack Cook scored 30 seconds after to narrow the lead to two.
Both teams topped 20 shots in a wide open first.
Defenceman Cook scored the lone goal of the second frame–his 12th–to make it a one-goal game.
It was wall-to-wall Walleye in the third. Jeremy Dunmore tied it at 1:14. Mackenzie Sedgwick notched his 5th at 4:48, Noah Kramps added his 5th at 13:50, and Braeden Duchesne’s dagger (his 7th) at 17:21 was enough to dispel any notion of pulling Kyler Lowden for an extra attacker.
Jack Orchard picked up win number seven, making 48 saves. Lowden stopped 38 of 44.
Ryan Doucette had three assists for Kam River, and Dunmore added an assist. Ryan Kayser had a pair of helpers for Wisconsin. McMillen became the first player to hit 50 points with his first period strike.
Kam River’s ever improving powerplay was 2-4, while Wisconsin was blanked in three chances.
In Saturday’s game Wisconsin overcame three one-goal deficits, scoring four in the third period to defeat the Walleye 5-3. Sal Poggiali had two goals and two assists and Ryder McMillen added a goal and three helpers to key the attack. Kyler Lowden upped his record to 8-9-4 in a statement game for the Americans.
Kobe Braham had the only goal of the first period for Kam River. Poggiali’s 15th tied it up at 5:45 of the second. Jeremy Dunmore’s 13th midway through the second had Kam ahead 2-1 heading into the third. Defenseman Zach Carson scored his 19th at 7:08 on a Lumberjack powerplay to tie it up. Anthony Oviedo put the Walleye up again 3-2 at 10:34 of the third.
This is when the script flipped. The Lumberjacks, on the losing end of one-goal heartbreakers throughout the season, turned it on in the final 5:08.
Simon Davidson’s one-timer tied the game at 14:52. Poggiali scored from six feet out at 16:29. And McMillen’s empty-netter with 1:23 left put an exclamation point on a Wisconsin comeback against the SI’s top team.
Zach Carson and Simon Davidson had a goal and assist each for Wisconsin. Braham added an assist and Riley Borody had two helpers for Kam River.
Eric Vanska saw his record drop to 17-4-1 in the loss.
Both teams were 1-3 on the powerplay. Wisconsin had 20 of the 32 penalty minutes meted out. Attendance was 256.
Dryden 4 @ Fort Frances 2 Fri Jan 20: Fort Frances 3 @ Dryden 9 Sat Jan 21
Dryden fired 60 shots at Brendan Stroble and used leads of 2-0 and 4-1 to defeat the hometown Lakers 4-2. Ice for Kids Arena drew 363 for the event.
Special teams played prominent a role in this game as three powerplay goals and Brady Wicklund’s shorthanded marker for Fort accounted for four of the six goals recorded.
Max Roby went bar down for his 12th at 5:49 of the first period for Dryden on the powerplay. Landen Stromme’s 17th doubled the lead at 15:14.
Wicklund scored his shorty from the left dot, converting a perfect pass from Jack Wood to draw the Lakers to within one. It was Wicklund’s first goal of the year. James Hooton scored on the same powerplay to re-up the Dryden lead to 3-1.
Defenceman McKale Paul, a 6-2, 210-lb native of Swift Current, SK, scored his first as an Ice Dog to give Dryden a 4-1 lead after two.
Blake Ferris redirected Trever Sanderson’s shot/pass for his first as a Laker on a powerplay to draw the Lakers close. Dryden’s Stromme drew a late penalty at 17:43 and Fort pulled Stroble for an extra man for the final 2:17 but to no avail.
Ethan Scriven played his first game as a Laker. The Warman, SK native played for the Kindersley Klippers of the SJHL this year, amassing seven points and 39 penalty minutes in 20 games while there. The 19-year-old forward is 5-10, 174-lb and brings a physical presence.
Ryland Maier had two assists for Dryden.
Zac MacDonald won his 6th for Dryden, stopping 21 of 23.
Dryden had two on the powerplay while Fort was 1-3.
Saturday’s rematch in Dryden was a no-contest affair. Dryden had five on the board through 21 minutes cruising to a 9-3 win before 450 fans at the Dryden Memorial Arena.
James Hooton had a hat trick for Dryden. Seven other Ice Dogs had two points or more, and 14 Dogs had at least one.
Rhys Maksimow had three assists. Max Roby had two goals to up his season total to 14 in 20 games. Landen Stromme and Bryce Benfield had a goal and assist. Tyler Earl and Garrett Hrechka had two assists each. Ryland Maier and affiliated player Brent Pollard also tallied for the Ice Dogs.
Josh Greene, Kevin Bond and Ian Snooks had goals for the Lakers.
Zac MacDonald won his 6th of the year handling 33 of 36 shots. Dryden fired 56 shots at Ryan Tanner in Fort’s net.
A major dust-up at 13:25 of the second punctuated an otherwise cleanly played affair. Dryden took 26 of 34 penalty minutes.
Sioux Lookout 3 @ Red Lake 6 Fri Jan 20: Sioux Lookout 4 @ Red Lake 0 Sat Jan 21
Red Lake used four second period goals to win their fifth in a row with a 6-3 victory over Sioux Lookout. The uprising chased Bomber starter Ethan Penner at 11:16 of the middle frame.
Jack Osmond shunted aside 47 of 50 for his 14th win. Penner evened his record at 2-2-0. Jake Manners stopped all 27 shots in relief but the damage was done.
Luke Decorby scored his first of two on Penner’s doorstep to open the scoring for Red Lake. Graeme Patrick scored two for Sioux Lookout 86 seconds apart late in the first. His first was on the powerplay. The second he slid along the ice to beat Osmond. Owen Riffel assisted on both.
Second period markers by Dayvan Bull and Quintyn Sidaway and put Red Lake up 3-2 but Riffel answered eight seconds later with an unassisted effort to tie it at 3-all.
Decorby scored his second 81 seconds later and Anthony Pileggi added to Red Lake’s lead 19 seconds later to give the Miners a 5-3 lead heading into the third.
Colton Crysler’s empty netter with 48 seconds left sealed the deal.
The Bombers were 1-4 on the powerplay while the Miners were shut out in five chances. A total of 58 penalty minutes were whistled by Steve Anderson and Kevin Kuluski.
Decorby added an assist for a three-point night for Red Lake. Aiden Corbett had three assists. Ty Woodard and Matthew Macpherson chipped in with a pair of helpers each.
Patrick’s two goals and Riffel’s three points powered the Bombers.
Jack Manners recorded his third shutout in Saturday’s game as the Sioux Lookout Bombers downed the Red Lake Miners 4-0. Manners stopped all 64 shots he faced on the weekend.
Connor Burke and Lucas Trimarchi scored 31 seconds apart in the latter stages of the first period, and Nolan Palmer and Tegan Neuman added second and third period markers to snap Red Lake’s five-game winning streak. Palmer, Trimarchi and Neuman also had assists.
Manners lowered his goals against to 2.42 and hit .930 in save percentage with his 37-save effort. His 16 wins trail Kam River’s Eric Vanska by one.
The Bombers enter week-17 in third place, a point up on the Miners with two-games in hand, and two points back of Dryden with the Ice Dogs having a game in hand. The three teams are separated by three points. Kam River has a six-point lead on Dryden.
Sioux Lookout’s lone powerplay goal was Palmer’s in the second period. They went 1-5, while Red Lake was 0-7 with a man advantage.
Sioux Lookout had 28 penalty minutes to Red Lake’s 22.