FORT FRANCES – The Kam River Fighting Walleye continued their early-season roll on Saturday night, completing a weekend sweep of the Fort Frances Lakers.
Jett Mintenko scored a pair of goals to lead the Fighting Walleye to the 6-2 road win, with singles going to Bryden Bell, Caleb Labelle, Riley Borody and Kaden Goodwin.
The win improves Kam River’s record to 4-1-0 on the season, while the host Lakers are still looking for their first win of 2023-24 and sit at 0-5-5.
Landon Lowes had a goal and an assist for Fort Frances, whose other goal came off the stick of Pierce Gouin.
Lucas Toth took the loss between the pipes for the Lakers, good on 30 of 36 shots he faced. Ashton Sadauskas picked up the win, stopping 26 of 28 Fort Frances shots.
The Fighting Walleye return to Norwest Arena next weekend, when they’ll welcome the Wisconsin Lumberjacks to town with games at 7:45 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Dryden 4, Thunder Bay 1: The Ice Dogs swept their two-game road trip at Fort William Gardens, scoring the game’s first three goals to maintain a one-point lead atop the SIJHL standings. Max Roby scored twice an Eli Antoine an Ben Coathan also tallied on North Stars goaltender Ethan Barron, who made 26 saves on the night. All four Ice Dogs goals were unassisted efforts. Ewan Soutar picked up the win, and E.J. Paddington goal midway through the third the lone blemish on his card. The Ice Dogs improved to 4-2-0 while the struggling Stars are now 1-4-0.
Sioux Lookout 7, Kenora 3: Tait Howell scored twice and Owen Riffel had a goal and two helpers to lead the second-year Bombers to the win, their fifth in sixth outings this season. Blake Burke had a goal and two assists for the host Bombers (5-0-1), who are 3-0-1 at home in 2023-24. Jeremiah Jacques, Triston Bear and Aaron Bertschinger scored for the Islanders (1-3-0). Matthew Stephens faced 54 shots in goal for Kenora, stopping 47. Matthew Ofukany made 21 saves to earn the win.
Red Lake 8, Wisconsin 3: Skyler Carriere had a pair and Jared Burnett and Gabe Tanton each put up three-point efforts to lead the Miners to the lopsided win over the visiting Lumberjacks. The game was tied 1-1 after one, but Red Lake (4-2-0) exploded for five goals in the second, including four straight in the first 13:38 of the frame to put the game away. Koen Burkholder, Marshall Thomas and Nolan Fowler scored for Wisconsin (1-3-2).
