OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Daxton Lang and Jett Mintenko are in a heated battle for the Superior International Junior Hockey League scoring title.
More importantly, their Kam River Fighting Walleye are battling it out for second place and home-ice advantage in the opening two rounds of the playoffs, with an outside shot at catching the Dryden Ice Dogs for top spot.
While the latter is a slim possibility, the Fighting Walleye (33-12-1) trailing the Ice Dogs by six points with just four games to go, second place is starting to look more and more like a reality.
Lang and Mintenko are big reasons why.
Lang, the captain, scored three times on Sunday afternoon and Mintenko added assists on each one of them, leading the Fighting Walleye to a 7-2 win over the Sioux Lookout Bombers (29-12-5) at the Norwest Arena.
With the win, the Walleye have opened a four-point gap over the third-place Bombers, who hold a slim one-point lead on the fourth-place Thunder Bay North Stars, who hold a game in hand on both teams.
In the scoring race, Lang tops the parade with 32 goals and 79 points, both SIJHL bests in 2024-25. Mintenko sits two points back with 77 points, including a league-high 50 assists, tying him with Thunder Bay’s Tag Bryson.
The North Stars Tyler Jordan is a distant second, with 62 points.
Owen Riffel and Jonah Smith gave the Fighting Walleye a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes, but it was all Kam River from there on in.
Lang scored twice, a little more than three minutes apart, and added his third of the night five minutes after his second goal, after Amar Powar potted his ninth of the season, part of a four-goal second that gave Kam River a 5-2 lead entering the third.
Carter Poddubny and Sam Sargent had the Fighting Walleye’s third-period tallies.
Callum Halls had Kam River’s opening goal, beating Matthew Ofukany at 12:34 of the first.
Ashton Sadauskas made 35 saves to earn the win between the pipes. Ofukany gave way to Matthew Spencer-Dahl after Powar scored at 8:35 of the second.
Kam River travels to Fort Frances and Sioux Lookout this weekend. Up next for the Bombers is a Friday night visit to Dryden.
