OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Noah Tenney might be developing a flair for the dramatic.
The Red Lake Miners rookie scored what proved to be the winning goal on Friday night, just nine seconds after the Kam River Fighting Walleye erased a two-goal deficit, propelling the visiting side to a 6-3, season-opening triumph at the Norwest Arena.
The Edmonton-born 18-year-old finished the night with a goal and two helpers in his 2023-24 debut, said the key to the win was not letting the blown lead get under their skin.
“We know we can play. We’re better than that. We just had to go back in and get it,” said Tenney, who had 11 goals in 38 games last season with the Edmonton Jr. Oilers U18 team.
“We just had to get back to doing what we were doing earlier.”
The Fighting Walleye, the defending Superior International Junior Hockey League champions, entered the third trailing 3-1, but scored twice in a three-minute span to get back on even ground with the Miners, the 2022 league champion.
Kaden Goodwin crashed the net on a partial breakaway to close the gap to one at 7:38 of the final frame and Daxton Lang completed the comeback at the 10:17 mark, ripping the puck past Red Lake goaltender Trent Boryszczuk to even the score 3-3.
Kam River’s excitement was short-lived, though it wasn’t a pretty effort that gave Red Lake the lead again, this time for good.
At least, it wasn’t pretty in Tenney’s opinion.
“It was the power play. I was playing my low spot and I got the puck down low. I was looking for the pass across and didn’t see it, so I just tried to stuff it in and it just went in,” he said.
Winning Game 1 of 49 was important, said newly hired Miners coach Lee Stone, adding his team learned a bit about dealing with adversity during the preseason.
“I think we’ve proven that we can handle being scored against,” Stone said. “Sometimes that can be a challenge. For me I’m just super proud of the kids for battling the way that they did. Scoring that goal and quickly as they did, and then following it up with another one, for me just puts the exclamation point on the night.”
It was the Walleye who opened the scoring, New Brunswick rookie Cole Fraser taking a quick pass in the slot and punching it past Boryszczuk, the lone goal of the opening frame coming at 14:36.
It was all Red Lake in the second, with Aiden Corbett and Gavin McIntosh doing the heavy damage, scoring 64 seconds apart in the first two minutes of the period. Skye Carriere added an insurance marker with 5:41 to play. Blake Hiltermann and Brody Lindal added insurance markers 15 seconds apart in the final five minutes of the period.
It might only be opening night, but it never hurts to set the tone on the season early, Stone said.
“We set a goal, real early in the summertime, all of our returning guys and all of our recruits, and that’s to be on top at the end of the year. Certainly, we’ve got a long, long way to go, but this was a great start for us and it’s good for us to know we can put ourselves in that situation.”
Boryszcuk made several big stops in the game’s early going to keep his team in the hunt, including a breakaway by Lang late in the second.
Ashton Sadauskas didn’t have the best of games, allowing six goals on 18 shots, playing between the pipes for the Miners.
The Fighting Walleye honoured the memory of former player Dayton Clarke prior to the game. Clarke was killed earlier this year when he was struck by a vehicle in Eugene, Ore.
Red Lake and Kam River tangle again on Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
Sioux Lookout 3, Thunder Bay 1: Jonah Smith scored twice to lead the Bombers to a win over the Thunder Bay North Stars. Owen Cotter had the other goal for the host side. E.J. Paddington had the Thunder Bay goal.
Kenora 4, Wisconsin 3 (SO): The expansion Islanders opened with a shootout win over the Lumberjacks, Reid Zurkan netting the winner against Wisconsin goaltender William Forrester. Aaron Bertschinger sent the game to OT with the lone goal of the third.
