At the Fort William Gardens the home town North Stars jumped out to 3-0 lead and never trailed en route to the triumph over visiting Dryden.
Quinn Rempel opened the scoring, striking shorthanded, at the 11-minute mark, which was followed by Devin Fullum’s sixth of the season three and a half minutes later.
Fullum then fed Brandon Wolframe at 19:02 only to see Tom Kuhn answer back for the Ice Dogs just 22 seconds after that.
The lone effort of the middle frame came off the stick of Joshua Blacksmith at 13:29.
Wolframe’s second of the evening increased the Stars’ cushion six minutes into the third period while Ryan Lobreau added a late marker for Dryden to round out the offensive production on the night.
Jesse Linner had a pair of assists for the Ice Dogs as he reached the 100-point plateau in his SIJHL career. The 19-year-old forward has 35 goals and set-up 65 others in 96 games.
Marc Nother turned aside 20 of 22 attempts he faced to register the win as Thunder Bay put an end to a three-game losing streak as they improved to 20-15-5 on the campaign.
Dryden fell to 20-17-5 with the loss as Ice Dogs starter Dean Shepherdson faced 26 shots. Kim Wildhaber stopped all six pucks he encountered in 12 minutes of relief.
