SPOONER, Wisc – The Bill Salonen Cup got under way in the Superior International Junior Hockey League between the Dryden Ice Dogs and the Wisconsin Wilderness in Spooner, Wisconsin. The Ice Dogs are looking for their third Salonen Cup championship in ten years. They were Champions in 2002 and 2008, this is Dryden’s sixth final appearance in the ten year history of the SIJHL. The Wilderness are in their first final, it is Wisconsin’s first year in the SIJHL. The Wilderness come into the final seeded number one going 45-6-5-1-4 in the regular season and played the Thunder Bay North Stars in the second round of the playoffs. Wisconsin knocked off the Stars in four straight games booting the 2009/10 Champions. The Dryden Ice Dogs enter the final seeded third in the SIJHL going 34-20-2-0 in the regular season. The ‘Dogs played the Fort Frances Lakers in the second round of the playoffs needing six games to knock off the Lakers and punch their ticket to the Salonen Cup. The two teams played eleven times in the regular season and the Wilderness were able to dominate the Ice Dogs 8-3 in the series. Both the Wilderness and ‘Dogs have won big games on the road in the series. The Northwest Sports Complex in Spooner, Wisconsin was the stage for game one of the finals and the fans knew that it was going to be a hard hitting fast paced game at the Wilderness did not disappoint at 2:11 of the first Andrew Anderson whistled one past Ian Perrier to take a very early lead in the first. With the Ice Dogs on the break and controlling the game the Wilderness`Donnie Roberts took a hooking penalty at 2:19 of the first period and the Ice Dogs potent power play unit hit the ice only to be held back. The Wilderness continued the scoring in the first with a great goal by Dalton Betzen to put the hometown Wilderness up 2-0. The Dryden Ice Dogs took a penalty at 14:43 of the first as Alex Galbraith was sent to the box for two minutes for cross checking. Steve Hughes and Andrew Anderson connected to put the Wilderness up 3-0 on a shorthanded effort giving Anderson his second goal of the game and the period. When the first period ended the Ice Dogs found themselves in a three-goal defecit. The second started much like the first period ended with the Wilderness scoring at 4:44 of the second to go up 4-0 on the Ice Dogs, all star Dogs goalie Perrier was not being backed up by his defence and he was having a very hard time with the Wilderness potent offence. At 7:35 of the period frustration on the Dogs began to get the best of them.
When the whistle sounded went the official had called a slashing penalty on Cole Manning of the Dogs, but after the play there was some pushing and shoving and Cole Manning was also giving two minutes for roughing but the Wilderness were also given a roughing penalty to be served by Steve Hughes.
The Wilderness would go back on the power play after Hughes had served his penalty as Manning was serving four minutes with his roughing penalty. At 18:48 of the second period the Ice Dogs were back on the power play as Wisconsin’s Nathan Paulsen was in the box for tripping, the Ice Dogs special teams had been so good in the second round versus the Lakers they were hoping to find that magic again, but with five seconds to go Andrew Anderson completed the hat trick with his third goal of the game which was a shorthanded, unassisted effort to put the Wilderness up 5-0. The third period saw tempers flare and 13 penalties were handed out and the Ice Dogs`Cole Manning was assessed a ten-minute game misconduct for Verbal Abuse of the Officials.
Wisconsin took advantage of the Dogs` loss of discipline when Lucas Henderson let a mean shot go and scored the lone goal in the third to put the 6-0 score in the books. Wisconsin ended up serving 26 minutes on 13 infractions and the Ice Dogs ended with 42 minutes on 17 infractions. The Wisconsin Wilderness goal tender John McLean recorded a shutout in game one and Ian Perrier of the Dog`s seen his save percentage drop to .837. Game two is on Monday in Spooner before the series shifts to Dryden.
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