SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA UPDATE
Wilderness snap lengthy losing drought surprising Lakers; North Stars edge Ice Dogs in OT
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – After 32 straight losses the Wisconsin Wilderness are back in the win column in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
An Alex Rezansoff second period goal proved to be the game-winner as Wisconsin shocked the league-leading Fort Frances Lakers 4-2 Saturday night at the Spooner Ice House.
Elsewhere Saturday Brandon Wolframe scored in overtime as the Thunder Bay North Stars rallied to edge the Dryden Ice Dogs 4-3 at the Fort William Gardens.
WISCONSIN WILDERNESS 4 FORT FRANCES LAKERS 2 – In Spooner the Wilderness picked up their first home win of the season and first since Sept. 22 in Dryden in the surprise victory over Fort Frances.
After Mason Meyer put the Lakers in front early, via the power play, Wisconsin answered with a pair or markers of their own from Shane Billings and Justin Gregory to go up 2-1 after 20 minutes.
They extended their lead by netting the only two tallies of the middle session thanks to Rezansoff and Jake Lobato.
A Tanner Fricke man advantage effort nine minutes into the third made it closer, but the Wilderness held on from there to snap the lengthy losing streak.
Griffin Strain played a big role in the upset making 42 saves to record his first SIJHL victory.
Devin Tappenden was not as fortunate suffering the loss in his league debut facing 40 shots in defeat.
THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS 4 DRYDEN ICE DOGS 3 (OT) – For a second consecutive Saturday night Thunder Bay topped Dryden in overtime, with this result coming at the Fort William Gardens thanks to a Brandon Wolframe effort in the extra session.
Dryden got off to a good start thanks to a Zach Kercz shorthanded effort at 7:41 of the first period.
Zach Grezlewski connected on the power play four minutes later to tie it only to see the Ice Dogs retake the lead courtesy of Derek McPhail at 12:52.
North Stars affiliate and Dryden native Josh Reid pull the North Stars level as he scored the only marker of the middle session.
Daniel Delpaggio, with the man advantage, gave Thunder Bay their first lead of the night 5:22 into the third, but Adam Smith forced OT as he connected on the power play with 3:06 to go in regulation.
That set the stage for Wolframe to win it as Taylor Santorelli teed up the puck allowing the goal scorer to skate into the top of the right face-off circle and wire the win over the glove of Joakim Jutras, who was making his first start in an Ice Dogs’ uniform, to end it.
Nathanial Dupuis picked up the win, which included a big save in OT moments before Thunder Bay went down to the other end of the ice and won it giving the North Stars their sixth win in a row.
