THUNDER BAY – When Larry Wintoneak took over the Kam River Fighting Walleye, the team was struggling.
The veteran coach was hired with the team sitting at 5-5-0, but by the time he actually arrived and took over behind the bench, they had added two more wins, the start of a five-game winning streak that has the Fighting Walleye alone in third place in the eight-team Superior International Junior Hockey League standings.
The team is 5-1-0 under Wintoneak’s tutelage, and added to their winning ways on Tuesday afternoon at the Tournament Centre, riding a two-goal performance by Kaden Goodwin to a 6-2 win over the visiting Ironwood Lumberjacks in the team’s annual school-day contest.
Goodwin scored the game’s first two goals, his ninth and 10th of the season, the tallies coming just 20 seconds apart in the opening two minutes of the second period.
The goals broke a 0-0 tie, and though the Lumberjacks did battle back to even the score at two goals apiece, the Fighting Walleye attack was just too much to handle for a team that saw it’s record dip to 2-17-1, just a single point ahead of last-place Kenora in the standings.
“We just kind of kept in it as a team, kept going hard, getting pucks to the net and got a couple more and put them away,” Goodwin said after Tuesday’s 6-2 triumph.
Kam River fired 16 shots at Ironwood goaltender in the first, but couldn’t connect with the back of the Lumberjacks net.
Sam Keene was equally impressive at the other end of the rink, making 11 stops in the opening period.
The floodgates, however, opened wide in the second, with Goodwin starting the ball rolling at the 1:15 mark of the middle stanza. Before the goal had been announced, the third-year winger had added his second of the day.
“The first one was just a nice stretch pass, caught the D off guard and I just got a quick shot off. The second one was a nice pass from my linemate (Jett Mintenko) and I had a wide-open net to put it into,” Goodwin said.
The Lumberjacks weren’t fazed.
Marshall Thomas picked the pocket of Kam River’s Evan Lachimea and fired a shot along the ice that evaded Keene at 7:56 of the second and then, some eight minutes later, Aidan Charron tied it up on the power play.
The elation lasted all of three minutes.
Veteran Sam Sargent restored Kam River’s lead with just 63 seconds remaining in the middle frame and the Fighting Walleye poured it on from there.
Carter Poddubny, Callum Halls and Tie Schumacher each tallied in the third, all three goals coming with the man advantage.
Wintoneak said a bevy of penalties in the opening period led to the team’s slow start.
“We couldn’t get any momentum going because we were killing tight minutes and we were killing a four-minute power play, so you don’t get to use your whole bench,” Wintoneak said.
“Some of those kids didn’t get too many shifts, so that first period was kind of a wash. We started getting our legs in the second and playing the way we can play.”
Fish hooks: Kam River’s Cole Piccinin and Gage Hordy picked up their first SIJHL points, assisting on Schumacher’s seventh of the season … The game was played in front of 1,200 fans, most of whom were bused to the rink from local schools.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: Goodwin KRW (tripping) 1:21, Goodwin KRW (tripping) 3:52, Liang KRW (tripping) 8:19, Scott IRW (high sticking double minor) 12:40.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Goodwin 9 (Kukko) 1:15. 2. Kam River, Goodwin 10 (Lang, Mintenko) 1:35. 3. Ironwood, Thomas 9 (unassisted) 7:56. 4. Ironwood, Charron (Salvatore, Kronstedt) 16:03 pp. 5. Kam River, Sargent (unassisted) 18:57. Penalties: Poddubny KRW (high sticking) 5:24, Liang KRW (high sticking), Fowler IRW (holding the stick) 6:13, Barnhart KRW (holding) 14:43, Nailen KRW (cross checking) 18:07, Fowler IRW (tripping) 18:32
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Kam River, Poddubny (Lachimea, Halls) 6:02 pp. 7. Kam River, Halls 6 (Lachimea, Poddubny) 12:48 pp. 8. Kam River, Schumacher 7 (Hordy, Piccinin) 13:37 pp. Penalties: Loney IRW (holding) 4:17, Liang KRW (cross checking) 6:59, Scott IRW (spearing double minor) 11:49, Fowler IRW (boarding) 13:15, Scott IRW () 19:29.
GAME DATA – SOG – Ironwood 11-9-1-21, Kam River 16-13-17-46; Power plays (goals-chances) – Ironwood (1-7), Kam River (3-6); Goaltenders: Ironwood: Kole Kronstedt, Kam River: Sam Keene. A: 1,200.
