SIJHL Team Preview: Dryden Ice Dogs

An original founding member of the SIJHL, the Ice Dogs will begin play in their 11th year on Saturday when they welcome the reigning Bill Salonen Cup champion Wisconsin Wilderness to Memorial Arena in a 7:30 p.m. start.

In 10 previous seasons, Dryden has two Bill Salonen Cup titles to their credit and have also played in four other league championship series.

In 506 career SIJHL regular season contests the organization has posted an all-time record of 291-172-43.

They have only had one sub-.500 season over the first decade of league play.

Behind the bench the club will feature a new face in Joe West as he replaces former SIJHL coach of the year Clint Mylymok who led the team to appearances in the final the previous two campaigns.

Mylymok had moved on to the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Jr. Hockey League late in the off-season.

West will also co-share general manager duties with director of hockey operations Brad Boyko.

Expected to be a leading contributor to Dryden’s offensive production is returning forward Thomas Greene.

The 19-year-old native of Arvada, Colo., topped all SIJHL players in playoff goals and overall points last postseason with 11 and 19 respectively.

In 42 regular season contests Greene managed 36 points, including 15 goals, six of which were game-winners. That was only one off the league lead in that category.

Also among the group up front that is back is Jesse Linner, who is coming off a 44-point campaign. He found the back of the net 14 times and chipped in with 30 helpers.

Then there is Dryden native Ryan Lobreau who picked up 13 tallies and set-up 12 others along with Dallas Allaire who accumulated 21 points on the year.

Others forwards that are back include Bryce Maggrah, Beau Deloreto and Zane Zerbinati.

Among newcomers, another local product in Josh Reid, impressed in preseason play picking up three points in his lone exhibition contest.

Fellow first-year skaters up front include Trevor Morin, Jared Stratford, Chris Belhumer, Stephan Kosior and Ryan Wilgosh.

Defensively, the likes of Len Pelletier will hope to build on a strong playoff performance last spring when the 19-year-old blueliner topped all SIJHL defencemen in points with 12 including a league-best seven goals.

He is a veteran of 125 SIJHL games.

Fellow returnees Tom Kuhn, Ian Schachte and Ty Brueggeman will also be called up upon to bolster Dryden’s back end.

Newcomers on defence include Brett Pile and Bryden Izzard.

Between the pipes the Ice Dogs will start the year with a trio of netminders.

Brett Timmerman is back for his final season of junior hockey and he will be joined by Kim Wildhaber and Dustin Stevens.