THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The Superior International Junior Hockey League semifinals get underway Thursday with the No. 1 seeded Thunder Bay North Stars taking on the No. 4 Dryden GM Ice Dogs in one match-up in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Fort William Gardens.
Here’s a look at how the series shapes up.
THEY MEET AGAIN: Long-time SIJHL rivals, the North Stars and GM Ice Dogs are gearing up to meet for the eighth occasion in the playoffs.
Five of those best-of-seven meetings were in the Bill Salonen Cup finals where Thunder Bay won it all in 2004 (4-1), 2006 (4-0) and 2010 (4-1) while Dryden came away victorious back in 2008 (4-1) as well as last season (4-2).
This marks the third time the two sides will tangle in the semifinals with the North Stars taking the series in 2007 (4-1) while the GM Ice Dogs returned the favour in 2016 (4-2).
In their previous 36 postseason meetings, Thunder Bay currently holds the edge in victories by a 21-15 count, but Dryden, the two-time defending Bill Salonen Cup champions, holds an 8-4 edge in their two most recent get togethers.
HOW THEY ARRIVED: The North Stars finished first overall in the SIJHL regular season standings in 2018-19 posting a league-best 49-5-1-1 overall record, which was good enough for 100 points.
With that, Thunder Bay earned a first round bye and a place directly into the semifinals.
As for the GM Ice Dogs, the registered a 29-20-4-3 record in league play with their 65 points placing them in fourth spot.
Dryden took on the fifth place Fort Frances Lakers in quarter-final competition and skated to a three-game sweep in the best-of-five affair winning by scores of 4-2, 2-0 and 6-2 to advance.
GM Ice Dogs defenceman Tyler Browning paced his club in scoring in the triumph over the Lakers with five points, including two tallies.
Next were forwards Evan Pakkala, Cameron Coutre and Malcolm Huemmert with four points each.
In all, 10 different Dryden skaters produced two or more points vs. Fort Frances.
Goaltender Jacob Anthony started and won all three games against the Lakers and enters the semifinals with a league-best playoff goals-against average of 1.33 and a save percentage of .950 along with one shutout.
SEASON SET: Thunder Bay and Dryden tangled 11 times during the regular season with the North Stars taking the yearly match-up with an 8-2-1 record.
Two of the contests went to extra time with the GM Ice Dogs taking the initial contest, 5-4 in overtime, while the North Stars let a late three-goal lead slip away before eventually prevailing 7-6 in a shootout in the other.
Overall Thunder Bay outscored Dryden by a margin of 47 to 35.
SCORING: The league-leading North Stars boasted a plethora of offensive talent seeing four of their players finish in the Top 5 in SIJHL scoring as well as have 10 skaters register 40 or more points on the campaign.
Leading the squad were forward Keighan Gerrie and defenceman Kyle Auger as the duo amassed 102 points each in pacing the league.
Gerrie, a NCAA Division I commitment to Bowling Green (WCHA) in 2020, scored 41 times and dished out 61 assists. He is also tabbed on the most-recent NHL Central Scouting rankings list heading into this June’s NHL Draft in Vancouver.
As for Auger, he topped all SIJHL blueliners in offensive numbers, including a league-high 69 assists.
Ryan Mignault and Joel Willan were fourth and fifth respectively in SIJHL scoring with 90 and 87 points with Mignault registering a league-high nine game-winning markers.
Dryden’s top point producer was veteran forward Eric Stout.
The GM Ice Dogs franchise-leader in goals supplied 40 tallies in 2018-19 and added 37 assists for 77 points.
Next on the squad was Cameron Coutre with 65 points followed by Jacob Siebenga with 61.
On the point, Curtis Magas collected 35 points for the GM Ice Dogs while rookie Ryan Brandt was close to a point-per-game with 33 in 37 outings.
GOALTENDERS: The Thunder Bay netminding tandem of Brock Aiken and Dougie Newhouse finished one-two in nearly every league goaltending catergory.
Aiken was first in goals-against average (2.12), save percentage (.931) and shutouts (8) followed by Newhouse in average (2.16), save mark (.923) and shutouts (5).
Newhouse was first overall in victories with 26 while Aiken had 23.
Both Jacob Anthony and Jordan Wilde had 13 wins each for Dryden during the season with Anthony posting a trio of shutouts with Wilde having one.
Anthony also tacked on three more triumphs in the quarter-final sweep of Fort Frances in Round 1.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Thunder Bay topped the table in power play proficiency at 24.8% scoring 52 times in 210 opportunities.
As for Dryden they finished third on the P.P. at 18.6% notching a league-best 56 extra man markers in 301 chances, which also led the SIJHL.
The North Stars were also No. 1 on the penalty kill at 89.4% while the GM Ice Dogs sat third at 82.7%.
Dryden was second in shorthanded goals scored with 12 followed by Thunder Bay with 10.
The GM Ice Dogs gave up eight shorthanded markers and the North Stars three.
TEAM NOTES: The North Stars featured the top three players in the SIJHL in terms of game-winning goals during the season. … Along with Mignaults’ nine, Auger had eight and Gerrie seven. … Also of note, of Auger’s 48 career marker in the league, 14 have been game-winners. … Thunder Bay led the league in goals scored with 363 while Dryden was third with 265. … The North Stars allowed the fewest tallies against at 122 while the GM Ice Dogs sat fourth in that category at 195. … Mignault was second in the SIJHL in goals with 49, Gerrie third at 41 and Dryden’s Stout fourth with 40. … Auger led the league in power play points with 27 while Gerrie and Stout knotted for third with 19 apiece. … Cameron Coutre of the GM Ice Dogs notched a league-best two penalty shot goals, in as many attempts. … Dryden went 23-5-4-2 when scoring first in a game while Thunder Bay was 34-0-0-1. … When leading after one period, the GM Ice Dogs were 24-2-3-1 and 24-1-2-0 when up after 40 minutes. … As for the North Stars, they were a perfect 29-0 when leading after one and 40-0 while in front heading to the second intermission. … Thunder Bay had winning streaks of nine of more games four times this season.
WHAT AWAITS: The winner of this series will meet either the No. 2 Red Lake Miners or No. 3 Thief River Falls Norskies for the Bill Salonen Cup league championship.
From there, the SIJHL title holder will travel to Cochrane, Ont., for the 2019 Dudley-Hewitt Cup Central Canadian Jr. A Championship, April 30 – May 4, at the Tim Horton Events Centre.
The Dudley-Hewitt victor will earn a berth at the Canadian National Jr. A Championship, May 11-19, in Brooks, Alta.
All SIJHL playoff contests are streamed live, and on demand, via HockeyTV.com.
SIJHL Playoffs
Series C
Semifinal A
No. 1 Thunder Bay North Stars vs. 4 Dryden GM Ice Dogs
Best-of-seven series
Game 1: Thursday, March 28 @ Thunder Bay 7:30 p.m. (Fort William Gardens)
Game 2: Friday, March 29 @ Thunder Bay 7:30 p.m. (Fort William Gardens)
Game 3: Sunday, March 31 @ Dryden 3:30 p.m. (Memorial Arena)
Game 4: Monday, April 1 @ Dryden 7:30 p.m. (Memorial Arena)
Game 5*: Wednesday, April 3 @ Thunder Bay 7:30 p.m. (Fort William Gardens)
Game 6*: Friday, April 5 @ Dryden 7:30 p.m. (Memorial Arena)
Game 7*: Sunday, April 7 @ Thunder Bay 7:30 p.m. (Fort William Gardens)
*-if necessary
Photo credit: Mark Whitaker