Ice Dogs, Lakers visit Kam River
Fans of the Kam River Fighting Walleye — of which there is a surging flow of frantic followers — will have the fortuity of watching their favourite Superior International Jr. Hockey League team take to the home ice of NorWest Arena three times in as many days this weekend.
Kam River, which is in its first full season as members of the SIJHL, will play host to the Dryden Ice Dogs on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 before taking on the visiting Fort Frances Lakers in a 1:30 Sunday matinee match.
Coached by homegrown talent Matt Valley, the Fighting Walleye is in first place in the SIJHL with a record of 29-5-2.
Dryden is in third spot with a 22-11-3 mark while Fort Frances is in last place with a 5-29-0 record but has shown improvement over its past several outings following a coaching change.
Offensively, Kam River has three players with 40 or more points, namely forwards Alex Enegren, Trenton Morriseau and Ethan Lang. And seasoned Fighting Walleye defensemen Zach Fortin and Kersey Reich are both point-per-game performers.
Dryden is no slouch at offensive prowess either. The Ice Dogs are led by SIJHL scoring leader Maxime Collette (35 goals, 28 assists, 63 points) and also boast legitimate lamplighters such as Tristan Takats, Brady Frattinger, Cameron Ware, Ondrej Bardos and Derek Koivisto.
Takats has 22 goals, Frattinger has 18, Ware has 16 and Bardos and Koivisto have both dented the twine 13 times.
As for Fort Frances, a Laker standout is goalie Mason Meyer, who while he only has a record of 3-16-0, boasts a .900 save percentage and has been under constant siege all season.
The Lakers made alot of trades at the deadline to improve their team and have been playing with a roster of 14-16 players since then so if they get healthy they will be dangerous.