The Thunder Bay North Stars knew their assignment Tuesday as they staved off elimination from in the SIJHL semifinals in Dryden defeating the Ice Dogs 3-2.
North Stars opened up scoring mid way through the 1st after Captain Matthew Halushak beat Ice Dogs goaltender Eric Clark, his goal was followed up a couple minutes later by Sam Skillestad on a power play.
Speaking of power plays if you wanted to see how desperate the North Stars were to stay alive and how determined Dryden was to put them out of their misery just look over at the penalties for the first period alone.
Penalty minutes amassed by Thunder Bay: 26, including a 10 minute misconduct picked up by Nikolas Campbell, who engaged in a bit of roughing with Ice Dog, Ben Hackl.
Penalty minutes amassed by Dryden: 26, including one 10 minute misconduct picked up by Ben Hackl who participated in a bit of roughing and boarding himself.
Moving into the 2nd, all quite on both fronts, no goals, no penalties.
Coming into the 3rd the Dryden attempted to go on the offensive early on through Kaden Bandura, but five minutes later Halushak shuts down the Ice Dogs advance.
The Ice Dogs made one last attempt with 2 minutes remaining as James Hooten beat Keenan Marks, but it just wasn’t enough.
There will be very little rest for either team as Game 6 will take place Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens.
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