OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Mr. Clutch lived up to his name once again.
Jett Mintenko, already with a pair of overtime winners in his back pocket this playoff season, buried a cross-ice pass from teammate Callum Halls with 3:42 to go in the first overtime period on Tuesday night, delivering a 4-3, Game 6 win that clinched a second Bill Salonen Cup for the Kam River Fighting Walleye in the last three seasons.
The goal ended a frantic overtime period, the Fighting Walleye and visiting Dryden Ice Dogs, a team seeking its first Superior International Junior Hockey League title since 2018, unable to find the back of the net, despite plenty of chances at both ends of the Norwest Arena ice.
Mintenko, who was mobbed after potting his eight goal of the postseason, said it was a fantastic way to cap off his SIJHL career – though the team does still have a berth at next month’s Centennial Cup to contend with before his junior days are done.
“It’s tons of emotions right now. I couldn’t be happier. It was such a great group of guys this year. For us to get it done at home here in Game 6, it means the world,” Mintenko said, his team celebrating the win with hugs and laughter before hoisting the trophy, each player taking a turn skating around the ice with the chalice raised to the rafters.
Mintenko, a dangerous player to leave open, found himself alone and Halls spotted him, spun and fired a tape-to-tape pass that milliseconds later blew past Dryden goaltender Noah Davis and ignited a championship celebration.
“I thought he was going to throw it around the back and he spun and luckily the D-man just missed it and I had the whole net,” Mintenko said. “I was just so happy. I was so overwhelmed. I couldn’t be prouder of the group.”
Halls said it’s an unbelievable feeling, winning a junior A title in his first season with the Fighting Walleye, after spending the past two seasons in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
“We were focused on getting pucks to the net. I’m taking it wide and all I hear is (Jett) screaming my name behind me and I just know I’ve got to get it there to him. He’s the best player in the league. You’ve got to get him the puck in that situation and I found a way and he got the goal,” said Halls, who hails from Brandon, Man.
The Fighting Walleye, playing in their fourth straight SIJHL final, looked like they might win Game 6 in regulation, when Zach Baumann and Carter Poddubny connected on a successful 2-on-1 late in the third, giving Kam River a 3-2 with 2:38 to go in regulation.
But with Davis on the bench for an extra attacker, Dryden’s Eli Antoine potted the equalizer, beating Ashton Sadauskas with just 81 seconds left in the third.
Dryden’s Adam Zimmerman and Kam River’s Brodie McLeod traded first-period goals. Edwin Liang gave the Fighting Walleye a 2-1 lead 28 seconds into the middle stanza, but Dryden captain and SIJHL most valuable player McLaren Paulsen knotted things up once again at the 15:54 mark of the second.
Sadauskas named the playoff MVP, came up big a couple of times in overtime, his biggest stops coming about three minutes before the series winner, Dryden’s Jordan Wales poking at the puck at the feet of the Kam River goaltender.
Fighting Walleye coach Larry Wintoneak, who led the Ice Dogs to the inaugural SIJHL title in 2002, said he was at a loss for words.
“These kids are resilient and I’m so proud of them and how they persevere. They scored with a minute left, we hung in there and played a pretty good game. These kids work, man,” Wintoneak said.
The Centennial Cup begins on May 8 in Calgary.
