The unranked Thunder Bay North Stars on Saturday made it 2-for-2 against the No. 4 Red Lake Miners, who they met in last year's SIJHL final and who entered weekend play undefeated and atop the league standings, downing the visitors 4-2 to complete a weekend sweep.
Joel Willan, who netted the game winner in the third from a near-impossible angle, said the team isn’t too worried about where the Canadian Junior Hockey League slots them. Winning the SIJHL is all that matters for now.
“This weekend we got the four points and it gives us a little space in the standings. They’re No. 4 and we beat them twice. That’s huge for us. Hopefully we can be on that leaderboard now and get back up to where we were last year,” said Willan, whose two-goal performance gives him five on the season, one shy of the SIJHL lead.
“You know what? Honestly as a team we aren’t too worried about the standings throughout the country. We’re worried more about the league and how we’re doing here. Obviously how we’re doing here will carry on to those standings. But our main focus is just getting back to that championship.”
Teammate Jacob Anttonen, who buried an empty-netter in the final minute of regulation for his league-leading sixth goal of the season, agreed the rankings don’t really matter.
“I don’t really think Canada is what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the league,” said Anttonen, also the second-leading point-getter in the SIJHL, with 11.
“Our main goal this weekend was to come by and defeat the undefeated and we did, twice. We played well, all four lines, goalie and D.”
That’s all North Stars coach Rob DeGagne could ask, adding his team might have come into the weekend with a little chip on their shoulder, after disappearing from the rankings after the opening week of the 2019-20 campaign.
“We can’t worry too much about rankings, we’ve just got to go win hockey games, but probably for sure it was a little extra motivation for the guys. We’ve got a lot of pride in the room. We’ve got 14 guys in the room who won it last year and they want to win it again,” DeGagne said.
After downing Red Lake 8-3 on Friday night at Fort William Gardens, the Stars looked like they’d picked up where they left off, Kyler Basaraba deflecting in a Nicholas Privitera shot for a 1-0 lead before the game was three minutes old.
Noah Kwasny tied it with 1:40 to go in the opening period, beating Jordan Smith for his first of the season.
The Stars (7-1-0) were outshot in the second, but Willan managed the lone goal of the period, Jacob Brown spotting him open in front and connecting with a pinpoint backhand pass.
Red Lake (5-2-0) evened the score again early midway through the third, when Kwasny stripped Anttonen of the puck inside the Thunder Bay zone and fed Ryan Patterson, who buried it past Smith and it was a 2-2 contest.
Willan netted the winner with 7:40 to go.
“It was a good forecheck by Jacob Brown, my linemate. The d-man coughed it up and it came out to me. I looked in the slot to see if anyone was open, took a quick look back. (Willms) gave me a little bit of that right corner, so I put it in there,” Willan said.
The Stars, who outshot Red Lake 49-32, host Wisconsin on Wednesday. Red Lake travels to Fort Frances on Tuesday.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Basaraba (Privitera, Lampi) 2:50. 2. Red Lake, Kwasny 1 (Sangha) 18:20. Penalties: Lux RLM (cross checking) 3:18, Campbell TB (slashing) 9:52, Lux RLM (hooking) 11:55, Nicholas TB (high sticking) 15:36.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Thunder Bay, Willan 4 (Brown, Campbell) 11:25. Penalties: Mihalcin TB (slashing) 12:19, Lux RLM (hooking) 13:26, Anttonen TB (holding) 15:39, Mihalcin TB (double minor, slew footing) 16:59.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 4. Red Lake, Patterson 1 (Kwasny) 9:44. 5. Thunder Bay, Willan (unassisted) 12:41. 6. Thunder Bay, Anttonen 6 (Bruchkowski, B. Erwin) 19:14 pp. Penalties: Gula RLM (hooking) 2:11, Halcrow RLM (slashing) 4:10, Bulger RLM, Young TB (unsportsmanlike conduct) 7:10, Holstein RLM (slashing), Nicholas TB (unsportsmanlike conduct) 8:04, Bulger RLM (roughing) 12:12, Campbell TB (slashing) 12:16, Willms RLM (interference, served by Halcrow) 17:55.
GAME DATA – SOG – Red Lake 7-13-12-32, Thunder Bay 20-11-18-49; Power plays (goals-chances) – Red Lake (0-6), Thunder Bay (0-7); Goaltenders – Red Lake: Zach Willms, Thunder Bay: Jordan Smith; A: 339.
