The Dryden Ice Dogs kick off the semifinals at home against the Fort Frances Lakers tonight at the Dryden Memorial Arena.

The Ice Dogs went undefeated in the playoff round robin, earning their choice of opponent in the semifinal. The Lakers beat the K&A Wolverines in OT in Thunder Bay on Sunday.

Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Game #2 will also take place at the Dryden Memorial Arena on Friday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Game #3 and #4 will take place in Fort Frances on Sunday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 22.

Game #5 will be back in Dryden if needed.

The Legion Branch #63 in Dryden hosted their first annual Children’s Wish Foundation Mixed Doubles dart tournament March 14 to help raise money for the charity.
Players from Fort Frances, Ignace, Oxdrift, Dryden and Wabigoon competed in the tournament.
Danny Bird and Anne Watson of Fort Frances earned first place and Gary and Heather Connor of Dryden took second place.
Third place ended in a tie between Katie and Tony Ryan of Dryden and Kevin and Cindy Richards of Ignace.
The tournament raised approximately $900 to be given to the Children’s Wish Foundation to help grant a wish to children with severe diseases.
Casey Gould and Michael Arnold, two 16-year-old boys of Dryden were both granted a wish through the Foundation and were present at the tournament to share their stories.
Gould was diagnosed with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy and was granted his wish in 2002.
He traveled with his family to Dover Delaware to watch Nascar and meet Jeff Gordon.
Arnold was born with a transposition of the great vessels in the heart, meaning the two main arteries in his heart were backwards.
He suffered his first heart attack in 2006.
He was granted a wish and traveled with his family to Ireland in March of last year.
His wish was to stay in the most haunted castle in Ireland. Instead, they stayed in three haunted castles and toured others during their week long visit.

There’s a lot to be said about hard work and determination and the Eagles girls’ senior volleyball team proved that at OFSAA.
The girls walked away with their first ever silver medal after losing to defending champions, General Amherst, in a thrilling three-set game.
Coach Todd Desautels says the girls are very proud of their accomplishment and has improved greatly over the course of the season.
“This is the most improved team I have ever coached. This team far exceeded any coaching goals that we had at the start of the season. This team worked extremely hard all season.”
The team finished second in the round robin after earning three straight wins against Don Bosco High School, host team Perth and Es De La Salle.
They earned one loss to ninth ranked Beamsville before securing a spot in the quarter finals.
A repeat game of last season, the Eagles took on first ranked West Elgin Secondary School and came back from a first set loss to take the opposition in three sets, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12.
The team met up with fourth ranked Gisele Lalonde for the semifinal match up, which also went to three sets.
The Eagles lost the first set 22-25 but fought back to take the next two 25-23, 15-11.
Already guaranteed a medal, the girls found themselves in the gold medal match, an achievement they had yet to accomplish.
Desautels says the girls’ experience took over and they were nothing but focused going into the final game against defending champs General Amherst.
“We know that team, we’ve faced them before. They were very focused. Just with their experience [...] they know what is needed to keep on playing.”
The team fell to the reigning champions in three straight sets, 19-25, 19-25, 15-25.
Desautels adds that the hometown support received during the tournament was phenomenal and helped the girls stay on track.
“I think that’s why we do well too, it’s because of who these girls are and where they come from. What they did exemplifies who we are, from the small town of Dryden with that sense of community, that sense of caring.”
He adds that lots of family, alumni and past Dryden residents turned out in their Eaglewear to cheer on the girls in their best medal achievement to date at the OFSAA level.

Domestic disputes and assaults
Dryden police had a Sioux Lookout woman in custody on March 10 following a call to a domestic dispute at 3 a.m. at a hotel. There was no assault as a result of this incident, however, the female was found to be on conditions not to consume alcohol and to abide by a curfew. She was subsequently arrested and held for bail court on March 10.
A Keejic Bay man also appeared in court on March 10, following a domestic assault on March 7. Officers responded to a call from the local women’s shelter, after a female reported an assault by her partner. The 28-year-old was held in custody pending a bail hearing.
A 52-year-old Dryden woman was in custody following two breaches of her conditions on March 7 and 8. She was charged with domestic assault on Jan. 11 and as a result of these incidents, was charged with breaching a non-communication condition, as well as failing to abstain from the consumption of alcohol.
On March 7, the victim in the assault returned home to find the accused in his residence. On March 8, the accused was arrested in the downtown area in an intoxicated condition.

Shoplifting
Police have laid shoplifting charges in two incidents this week. On March 5, officers were called to a local grocery store, where staff had detained a female. The 21-year-old of Dryden was charged with theft under $5,000 and is now prohibited from entering the store. Total value of the items stolen was about $25.
Officers were called to a downtown clothing store March 8 around 4:30 p.m. in regard to a theft from the store. A staff member had followed the accused and jewelry valued at about $15 was recovered. A 17-year-old youth was charged with theft under $5,000 and will appear in Dryden court April 12 to answer to the charge.

Impaired driver
Dryden police arrested an 18-year-old male of Dryden on March 12 after checking a vehicle in an apartment parking lot just prior to 10:30 p.m. The vehicle was running and upon speaking with the male, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, it was noted that he had been drinking.
He was subsequently taken to the Dryden Police Service for a breath test and it was determined that he was over the legal limit. He was charged with care and control of a motor vehicle while impaired.

Bad behaviour
Officers arrested a 20-year-old male of Dryden the morning of March 13. A 911 hang-up call was received from a local gas station and upon attending, officers located the male who had caused damage to the outside payphone at the business.
At that time, it was also found that he was on probation and on a condition to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. He was charged with mischief under $5,000 and breach of probation.

False identity
On March 13 around 2:45 a.m., a 21-year-old male of Dryden attended the Dryden Police Service for assistance. At that time, he was with a youth who gave a fictitious name to police.
Investigation revealed that the male was on conditions not to communicate or associate with the youth and both were subsequently arrested. The male was charged with breaching the conditions of his recognizance and the youth was charged with obstructing police by falsely identifying herself.

Swearing at passing vehicles
Dryden police arrested a 42-year-old male of Dryden on March 13 around 8 p.m. after a complaint was received of an intoxicated person on King Street.
Officers arrived to find the male yelling obscenities at the vehicles that drove by him. During the arrest, the accused began to swear at and fight with the officers. As a result, he was charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest.

Drunk and resisting arrested
On March 14 at about 4 a.m., a 29-year-old male was charged with resisting arrest after a request was received to have him removed from a residence due to intoxication.
Initially, the male was compliant, however, upon being taken to the cruiser, he became angry and began to fight with officers, swearing and attempting to break free.
While being lodged at the Dryden Police Service office, the accused then threatened to kill one of the officers. Charges resulting from this incident include resisting arrest, uttering threats and two counts of  breach of probation.

A health care milestone for the Kenora-Rainy River District was reached on Tuesday, March 9th at Dryden Regional Health Centre.
Dr. John Porter gave Gary Rumpel of Kenora a “new knee”. Gary is the 1000th patient to receive a knee arthroplasty through a northwest regional tri-hospital joint replacement program.
The orthopaedic surgical program started in Dryden in 2002. Riverside Health Care Facilities in Fort Frances and Lake of the Woods Hospital in Kenora joined the program in 2005.
Since that time, 569 knee replacements have been done in Dryden, 237 in Fort Frances and 194 in Kenora. There have also been 2559 arthroscopies, 98 major ligament repairs and 13,880 patients seen in consultation.
The result has been service closer to home for thousands of Kenora-Rainy River District residents.
The three hospitals worked together to develop common processes, share surgical equipment and develop a common wait list.
In an effort to accommodate personal schedules, patients are given the option of having surgery in any one of the three communities regardless of where they reside.
Moving orthopedic surgery into the regional hospitals has increased the surgical capacity within the North West LHIN, supporting one of the priorities set by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care under the Wait-Time Strategy.
When Dr. John Porter first came to Dryden in 2002, the wait time for a knee replacement in Thunder Bay was three years. The wait time in the northwest region is now two months.
The increased funding attached to the joint replacement program has made a positive contribution to the surgical services and acute care services at all three hospitals.
The statistics for Dryden Regional Health Centre show that local residents are not the only ones to benefit from this access to surgery.
In the years 2007 – 2010, 24% of the patients were from Dryden, 39% from northwest Ontario, 23% from Thunder Bay and 13% from communities on the north shore of Lake Superior. One patient traveled from Ottawa to Dryden to have a knee replacement.
“These are great facilities that were under-utilized,” Dr. Porter states emphatically, “There are excellent O.R. theatres in all three hospitals, excellent nursing and rehabilitation professionals.
This was an innovative idea, taking specialized orthopedic surgery outside of major hospitals to smaller regional hospitals, using the skilled personnel and the facilities to meet the needs of people across a system.
The knee replacement program has lead to expansion in other orthopedic surgery within regional hospitals, including hip replacements and shoulder repairs.
This is a milestone that everyone should be proud of; we have successfully reduced the wait time from three years to two months by thinking outside of the box.”

Former WWE star and crowd favourite Billy Gunn tries to escape the terrible clutches of 400 lb Big Cliff Corleone during the evening’s main event, March 12 at Dryden High School.   Photos by Chris Marchand