DRYDEN, Ont. – Dryden GM Ice Dogs captain Curtis Magas tallied twice and dished out two assists to help lead his club to a convincing 9-4 victory over the visiting Thief River Falls Norskies Friday in Superior International Junior Hockey League action at Memorial Arena.
Up a skater early, Dryden opened the scoring 2:43 in as Magas buried the rebound off a Dylan DiTomaso attempt.
Forcing a turnover, the GM Ice Dogs went up by a pair later in the first period that resulted in Magas going in and scoring shorthanded for his 10th goal of the year.
Still on the power play, Thief River Falls got on the board as Justin Schwartzmiller sped down the left wing and snapped a shot short side on Dryden starter Knute Loe for his first SIJHL marker.
The Norskies then drew level at 13:10 as Cory Checco fed a cross-crease pass over to an open Nick Harder, who slammed in his 12th of the campaign.
Magas then collected his third point of the period as he got it over to Justin Pitari, who banked in his 20th to put the hosts back in front.
Thief River Falls tied it once more, 46 seconds into the middle stanza, when Isaac Baron bagged his 15th.
Stealing the puck behind the net, Evan Pakkala swiped it off a Norskies defender then converted on a wrap around to give the lead back to Dryden.
Right off the draw they added another as Jesse Mistelbacher finished off the strong forecheck work of Pakkala and Malcom Huemmert.
The GM Ice Dogs added one more before the frame was complete as DiTomaso one-timed a blast from the point to make it 6-3 game after 40 minutes.
In the third, Dryden put the game away by striking three times in rapid succession, early in the stanza, as Dylan Winsor deflected another DiTomaso shot and Xavier Halterman potted a pair, 12 seconds apart.
Checco wrapped up the scoring in the late going for the guests to finish things off offensively.
Loe posted the win for the hosts while Norskies starter Seth Purcilly suffered the loss and Caleb Sauer stopped all seven shots he faced in nearly 18 minutes of relief.
The two sides will meet again Saturday back at Memorial Arena in a 7:30 p.m. start.
Photo credit: Kayla Redsky Morrison