Credit to Chris Marchand
Sioux Lookout’s Kendall Schulz knows first hand whats at stake with regional rivalries.
Schulz battled against Dryden and Red Lake and guided the High School Warriors to two All-Ontario Championship Tournaments.
Now as a member of the GM Ice Dogs he has helped his team earn first place early on in the SIJHL season.
Schulz scored a critical goal in a Wednesday win and responded with the eventual game winner Thursday as the Ice Dogs beat the Red Lake Miners 3-2.
Dryden’s Cameron Ware opened the scoring 1:18 into the contest as his shot appeared to deflect off a Miners stick beating Matt Perdue, however Red Lake quickly bounced back with Ryan Howe scoring on a 5-3 power play.
After a chippy scoreless second period Evan Pakkala gave Dryden GM the lead early in the third with his third goal in two games.
Schulz scored three minutes later after banking the puck off a Miners player into the net.
Red Lake wouldn’t concede as they pressured the Ice Dogs and finally late in the period Mario DeCapite would find some room to bury one off the post to make it 3-2.
Dryden GM would hold on to preserve the win and take 3 out of 4 hard fought games against the Miners to sit first in the SIJHL standings.
The story of the game was the goaltenders and especially 17 year old Matt Perdue.
The Miners rookie made several highlight reel saves and frustrated the Ice Dogs in his debut.
The product of the Under-16 team in his hometown of Brampton looked right at home in his first Junior Hockey game.
On the other side Dylan Kosik replied with a number of key stops for the second straight night and was named number one star of the game.
This is the final regular season meeting between the two rivals and both teams are now off for the Christmas break.
Each SIJHL team is scheduled to play one another in a four game series with self-isolation breaks in between.
The 2021 schedule is still being ironed out.
Credit to Chris Marchand
Credit to Chris Marchand
