By Gary Moskalyk
Sioux Lookout 3 @ Thunder Bay 5, Wed Feb 1
EJ Paddington and Nikolas Campbell scored a pair of goals each and Keenan Marks made 36 stops as the Thunder Bay North Stars defeated the visiting Sioux Lookout Bombers 5-3 before 307 fans at Fort William Gardens.
The Stars scored two on the powerplay and one shorthanded in the win. They closed to within two points of fourth place Red Lake with four games in hand.
Sam Skillestad scored on a powerplay one-timer, his first of the season, to open the scoring for Thunder Bay. Campbell’s pair, a give-and-go with Colby Feist at 7:59, and a powerplay marker off his skate at 13:49, gave the Stars a 3-0 lead. Ty Bahm’s backhand goal at 18:20 drew the Bombers to within two to end the first.
Tegan Neuman buried Bahm’s feed early in the second to draw the Bombers to within one. Paddington scored 18 seconds later to regain a two-goal North Stars lead.
Connor Burke collected a loose rebound at the expiration of a Bomber powerplay to get Sioux Lookout close. Paddington’s second goal, a key insurance marker at 12:53 of the third, restored the Stars two-goal margin. Paddington burst down the right side, bulled his way to the crease area, and squeezed one through Jake Manners’ pads. The unassisted, shorthanded effort was his 10th of the year.
Sioux Lookout was able to pull Manners for an extra attacker for 24 seconds at the end of the game.
Marks picked up his 8th win of the year while making 36 saves. Manners saw his record drop 16-10-1 after stopping 44 of 49 shots.
Skillestad added an assist and Colby Feist had a pair of assists for Thunder Bay. Bahm and Neuman added one assist each to the goals they scored for the Bombers.
Thunder Bay was 2-5 on the PP and killed off four Sioux Lookout powerplays. Three penalties were whistled per period. The Bombers took five of nine minors.
Sioux Lookout enjoys a break, while Thunder Bay takes on Dryden at home.
Fort Frances 0 @ Kam River 4, Fri Feb 3: Fort Frances 1 @ Kam River 7, Sat Feb 4
Ethan Lang scored two, including a backbreaker at 19:59 of the second, as the Fighting Walleye sunk the Lakers 4-0 before 720 fans at Norwest Arena. Eric Vanska picked up shutout number four and win number 20 with a 16-save effort.
Kam River bombarded Brenden Stroble with 57 shots.
A surprising 51 penalty minutes were called in the feisty affair.
Lang deflected Kobe Braham’s shot at 1:46 of the first to open the scoring. Jack Cook fired in his team-leading 15th goal from the point to give the Walleye a 2-0 lead after a period.
Lang’s second goal came with one second left in the second frame. Josh Morton rang one off the cross-bar after a face-off win, but Stroble’s luck dissipated quickly as the rebound went right to Lang who buried his 11th with 0.9 left.
Max Leduc scored from the Laker doorstep at 13:31 of the third to account for the goals.
Noah Kramps and Ryan Doucette had two assists each for Dryden.
The Walleye maintained their six-point lead over second-place Dryden with their 28th win. Both teams have 36 games in the books–two-thirds of the way through the regular season.
Affiliate player Andrew Kreis stopped 41 of 42 as the Walleye defeated the visiting Lakers 7-1 at Norwest Arena on Saturday. The Notre Dame Hounds product was called up from Schreiber Falcons of the Lakehead Junior Hockey League, won his first SIJHL start and was the game’s first star.
Kam River took period leads of 3-0 and 5-1 en route to their 29th win of the campaign. The squad climbed to a .797 winning percentage.
Braeden Duchesne had two goals for the Walleye. Kobe Braham and Jeremy Dunmore had a goal and assist each, and Mackenzie Sedgwick chipped in with a pair of helpers. Brydon Bell, Ryan Doucette and Ethan Lang also had goals for Kam River.
Brenden Stroble stopped 45 of 52 shots in the Laker net. Brady Krentz scored his 7th in the second frame to account for the Fort Frances scoring. His goal at 6:23 made it 3-1 before the Walleye scored the final four in the last 30 minutes of the game.
Neither team scored on the powerplay. Only 22 penalty minutes were assessed. The Walleye attracted 828 fans.
Dryden 5 @ Thunder Bay 1, Fri Feb 3: Dryden 4 @ Thunder Bay 0, Feb 4
Dryden swept a weekend pair against Thunder Bay to keep pace with Kam River and put a 12-point stranglehold on second place.
Friday’s game was a physical 153-penalty minute affair that result in five suspensions and a pair of injuries. Brady Frattinger dominated the hockey portion of the game with two powerplay goals and an assist to lead the Pack to a 5-1 victory.
Garrett Hrechka scored his first as an Ice Dog on a knuckler to open the scoring at 1:07 of the first.
Nikolas Campbell scored for the Stars at 17:39 on a absolute laser to the top shelf at 17:39 to tie it up.
Derek Koivisto went blocker side after a Dryden face-off win for second period’s only goal.
In the third, it was all Dryden. Frattinger went five-hole for his first powerplay marker, and then added his 14th on a rebound for his second. Max Roby’s one-timer–his 15th goal in 24 games–accounted for the scoring.
Eric Clark upped his record to 17-8-1, shunting aside 20 of 21. Lemieux faced 43 drives in the Thunder Bay net.
Five Ice Dogs and four North Stars hit double-digits in penalty minutes.
In Saturday’s game, Clark posted his second shutout of the season with a 33-save effort as the Ice Dogs beat the Stars 4-0 before 425 patrons at the venerable Gardens. McLaren posted a pair of third period strikes to lead the Dryden charge.
Garrett Hrechka collected his second goal of the weekend on a Dryden powerplay at 8:38 to open the scoring. Hrechka gathered in a Jack Cullen rebound for the goal. Kaden Bandura stripped Conner Lemieux of the puck behind the North Star cage and fired in an unassisted marker at 16:46. Keenan Marks came on in relief for the Stars.
There was no scoring in the second. Thunder Bay killed off a full two-minute 5-on-3 to close out the second frame. Marks made 21 saves in the period.
Clark made a highlight reel save on Easton Glousher at the 3:20 of the third period, snaring Glousher’s shot from three feet out with an outstretched glove to keep Dryden ahead by two.
Paulsen went blocker side on Marks at 6:12 and then deflected Easton Debray’s point shot three minutes later to provide the margin of victory.
Clark collected his 18th win. Lemieux evened his record at 9-9-3. Marks stopped 33 of 35, matching Clark save-for-save throughout most of the match.
Dryden took 33 of 56 penalty minutes. The Ice Dogs were 1-4 on the powerplay.
Thunder Bay was scoreless in five chances.
Red Lake @ Sioux Lookout postponed, Fri Feb 3, Sat Feb 4
Red Lake @ Kam River postponed, Sun Feb 5