OLIVER PAIPOONGE – The Kam River Fighting Walleye had five times as many shots and 12 times as many goals, laying an old-fashioned, ‘80s-style drubbing on the visiting Kenora Islanders on Saturday night.
It was a tale of two teams going in the opposite direction.
The Fighting Walleye, the defending Superior International Junior Hockey league champions, have won nine straight and with the 12-1 win, took over sole possession of first place in the eight-team league, one point better than the second-place Sioux Lookout Bombers, who kept pace with a 3-1 win over Red Lake.
The Islanders, a first-year team with just two wins and five points on the season, have now dropped 12 in a row and 39 of their past 40.
Held to just three goals in the first, the Fighting Walleye erupted for six in the second, including four in a 5:17 span that upped the Kam River lead from 5-1 to 9-1 at the time.
Second-year defenceman Brydon Bell factored in on all four goals, scoring back-to-back power play markers and assisting on goals by Ryan Doucette and Kaden Goodwin, giving him 39 points in 41 games tops in the SIJHL.
“Obviously it’s my teammates,” the Moose Jaw, Sask. native said.
“We stuck to our structure. Like coach said, those are tough games to play, honestly, to stay in it for the full 60 minutes. But we did a really good job, it was a team effort.”
It was the third straight game the shorthanded Islanders have allowed double-digit goals, and the seventh time this season.
Bell, in the hunt for the SIJHL defenceman-of-the-year award, won last year by teammate Jack Cook, was quick to deflect any praise of his game this season, adding he’s just looking for consistency on the ice.
“It feels good,” he said of his performance. “You just try to stack days during the week and hopefully it pays off on the weekend. It did this time, so it was good.”
Jett Mintenko, who scored twice to raise his season total to 19 goals, was the first to light the lamp, beating Kenora starter Matthew Stephens 5:29 after the opening puck drop.
Carter Poddubny, author of a four-point performance of his one, scored his lone goal of the night to double the Kam River lead at 11:50 of the first and Max Wright closed out the period with his seventh of the year, the goal coming with 77 seconds left in the first.
Jacob Sargent continued the onslaught with a shot from just inside the point 1:18 into the second, before Kenora’s Jayden McPherson-Nepinak picked up the puck in the slot, burying the pass from linemate Keanu Woodhouse past Kam River starter Ashton Sadauskas, the only one of 16 Islanders shots to beat him on the night.
Mintenko, Liam Bell and Daxton Lang, coming off a four-point performance on Friday, added third-period tallies for the Fighting Walleye, who fired 82 shots at Stephens and Kaden King, who came in after Kaden Goodwin closed out the scoring in the second.
Stephens made 44 saves on 53 shots and King was good on 26 of 29 shots he faced.
Ryan Doucette had Kam River’s other goal.
The two teams will wrap up their three-game series at Norwest Arena on Sunday night. Puck drop is 7:45 p.m.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Mintenko 18 (Doucette) 5:29. 2, Kam River, Poddubny 19 (Salvatore, Daponte) 11:50. 3. Kam River, Wright 7 (Salvatore) 18:43. Penalties: Zurkig KEN (slashing), Nailen KRW (cross checking) 13:07.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 4. Kam River, J. Sargent 4 (Doucette, Mintenko) 5:29. 5. Kenora, McPherson-Nepinak 7 (Woodhouse) 3 :41. 6. Kam River, Duchesne 15 (Poddubny( 6:52. 7. Kam River, B. Bell (Poddubny) 9:54 pp. 8. Kam River, B. Bell (Poddubny, Fagnilli) 11:40 pp. 9. Kam River, Doucette 17 (Mintenko, B. Bell) 14:41. 10. Kam River, Goodwin (Fagnilli, B. Bell) 15:11. Penalties: Constant KEN (tripping) 1:10, Bertshinger KEN (Cross checking) 8:33, Swampy KEN (slashing) 10:16.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 11. Kam River, Mintenko 19 (J. Sargent, Doucette) 5:11 pp. 12. Kam River, L. Bell 7 (Duchesne) 6:22. 13. Kam River, Lang 9 (Goodwin) 6:57. Penalties: Bertschinger KEN (slashing), Traverse KEN (roughing), Labelle KRW (head contact, misconduct) 3:56, Bertschinger KEN (cross checking) 9:14, Bench minor KRW (too man men, served by L. Bell) 10:33, McPherson-Nepinak KEN (misconduct), Lang KRW (cross checking) 18:18.
GAME DATA – SOG – Kenora 3-5-8-16, Kam River 23-40-19-82; Power plays (goals-chances) Kenora (0-2), Kam River (4-5); Goaltenders: Kenora: Matthew Stephens (53 shots, 44 saves), Kaden King (15:11, second); Kam River: Ashton Sadauskas; A: 685.
