THUNDER BAY – The Dryden Ice Dogs were one of the few Superior International Junior Hockey League teams with something to play for this weekend.
They made the most of the moment, roaring back from a 2-0 deficit on the road to edge the Thunder Bay North Stars 3-2 on Friday night, clinching home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
Defenceman Adam Zimmerman fired a shot through traffic propelled its way past North Stars netminder Keenan Marks with 4:32 to go in regulation, snapping a 2-2 tie and earned the Ice Dogs their 31st win of the regular season.
The win, combined with Red Lake’s 5-2 loss to the first-place Kam River Fighting Walleye, ensured Dryden a fourth-place finish in the eight-team circuit.
They’ll open at home next week against the Miners in their best-of-seven series.
“Home ice, especially against Red Lake, is huge. You don’t want to go into first round playing in that arena. It’d be a tough one,” said Zimmerman, the game-winner his fourth goal of the 2023-24 season.
Bouncing back after a slow first period showed the type of fortitude the Ice Dogs have, he added.
“It was an awesome character win and that’s what we wanted after the first period. It was a super slow start. In the second period we turned it on. (In the) third period I took some not so smart penalties, leveled my head out there and put that last one in,” Zimmerman said.
“It was an awesome game for us.”
The North Stars had little to play for, their first-round series against Wisconsin locked in, though mathematically when the puck dropped to open the first, they still had an outside shot at catching Sioux Lookout (34-10-4) for second.
They needed to finish with pair of wins and also required two Bombers losses to the expansion Kenora Islanders (2-45-1) – a team that’s managed just two wins all season long.
Neither scenario played out.
It was the longest of longshots, though Thunder Bay gave it their best effort in the opening 20 minutes.
E.J. Paddington, five points behind teammate Edison Weeks in the SIJHL points race, opened the scoring five minutes in, redirecting a pass behind Dryden goaltender Christian Lynch, who finished the night with 44 saves.
Tyler Jordan potted his 28th of the season just under three minutes late, taking a pass from teammate Cameron Dial and sliding it home.
That would prove to be the end of the North Stars offence.
The Ice Dogs were just beginning.
Max Roby, who entered play with a team-leading 27 goals, notched number 28 at 8:06 of the second, seconds after Marks stopped him on a breakaway attempt, cutting the Stars lead to 2-1, an advantage they’d take into the third.
Tanner Skyrpnyk went five-hole on Marks to even the score 6:43 into the third, the goal coming less than a minute after Dryden killed the second of Zimmerman’s minor penalties.
Zimmerman said despite the early deficit, they never gave up.
“Jake Gushue, our assistant coach, was our head coach tonight and gave us a really good chat and told us, ‘Hey guys, we’re a winning team. We can be a championship team and this has to be a character win,’” Zimmerman said.
“This just proved that we can win under bad circumstances.”
The Stars (31-12-5) and Ice Dogs (31-15-2) will close out the regular season on Saturday night at the Gardens. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.
In other SIJHL action, Ryan Doucette scored three times to lead Kam River (38-9-1) to a 5-2 win over Red Lake (29-17-2), Owen Riffel had a hat trick to raise his league-leading goal total to 35 in Sioux Lookout’s 9-3 win over Kenora and Emerson Evans netted the game-winner with 1:46 to go in regulation to lead Fort Frances (10-31-6) past Wisconsin 6-5.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: Penalties: 1. Thunder Bay, Paddington 31 (Caddo, Weeks) 4:58. 2. Thunder Bay, Jordan 28 (Helmeczi, Dial) 8:46. Penalties: Anton TB (hooking) 2:23, Smith DRY (roughing) 10:06.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Dryden, Roby 28 (Paulsen, Smith) 8:06. Penalties: Trahiotis TB (slashing) 3:03, Anton TB (tripping) 15:58.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring:4. Dryden, Skrypnyk 1 (Payeur, Hooton) 6:43. 5. Dryden, Zimmerman 5 (Devine) 15:28. Penalties: Zimmerman DRY (cross checking) 1:29, Zimmerman DRY (charging) 3:44,
GAME DATA – SOG – Dryden 6-21-11-38, Thunder Bay 16-7-23-46; Power plays (goals-chances) – Dryden (0-3), Thunder Bay (0-3); Goaltenders – Dryden: Christian Lynch, Thunder Bay: Keenan Marks. A: 611.
