Entering its 10th season, The Superior International Junior Hockey League is living up to its name.
The SIJHL was granted permission to accept two more teams into the league, both from the United States.
The Duluth Minnesota Clydesdales and the Spooner Wisconsin Wilderness will be added to the schedule along with the Dryden Ice Dogs, the Sioux Lookout Flyers, the Fort Frances Lakers and the Fort William North Stars in the SIJHL league, which means a few new faces will be visiting the Dryden Memorial Arena.
SIJHL President and Commissioner Ron Whitehead says the league was intended to be international and it’s time they went back to being just that.
“We’ve fully intended to be a trans-border league right since day one. We had two American teams in our league the first two years and then lost them so now we have them back. There are not enough towns in Northwestern Ontario, not enough economy right now in Northwestern Ontario to do any expanding and four or five teams is a pretty small league. Our only opportunities to expand were across the border.”
Whitehead adds that although Kenora would have been an obvious choice to expand in Northwestern Ontario, ice time is limited because of high school and AAA Thistle hockey. He says that if the problem of available ice time can be solved, the SIJHL would love to see a Junior A hockey team in Kenora.
For now, moving across the border is the only option for the league.
Bringing teams across the border, however, was not an easy task. While Hockey Canada approved the request to bring American teams into the SIJHL, Hockey USA denied the teams’ request to move north.
Once appealed, the teams were granted permission to play outside of their district but the league wasn’t expecting any complications.
Whitehead says the league is excited to bring in two new teams and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the SIJHL.
“They told us we would never see our first anniversary and we’re going to see our tenth so we have no intention of going anywhere and we’ll continue to fight and make this league as good as we can.”

The Ice Dogs are gearing up for the 2010/2011 season and an executive was put in place on Thursday, May 27.
The executive was voted as follows:
* President – Ted Lake
* Vice-President – Rob Adis
* Treasurer – Christine Mann
* Secretary – Lori   LaForrest
* General Manager – Vince Gernat
* Vice-President of Hockey Operations – Lori Feller
* Game Day Operations – Tammy Woitowicz,          Shannon Murdick
* Vice-President of     Business Operations – Mike Hull
* Community Relations – Ashlea Barker
Clint Mylymok will continue as head coach of the Dryden Ice Dogs and Darren Oliphant will remain assistant coach. Jim Wright was appointed trainer for the team. The Ice Dogs are getting ready for their 10th season as an SIJHL team in Dryden.

The second annual summer hockey school to be held in Dryden this August will feature some new techniques the coaches picked up in an exchange program with Finland last October.
Randy Allen, local coach and organizer for this year’s hockey school, took part in the exchange program last year and picked up a few techniques he hopes to incorporate this year.
“The camps will be more focused on skill development and skating. They will also be doing dryland training that’s hockey related such as stick handling but they will also be doing some fun activities like European floorball that we learned about in Finland.”
Allen says the Finnish hockey coaching is based very much on skill development and every team has dryland practices whether they are playing competitively or house league.
The camp will be held August 23-27 and will feature programs for all ages.
Kids born in 1996-1998 and 1998-2000 will be in two groups, with eight-hour sessions for the five days.
Kids born in 2001 and later will be given an hour in the evening and a goalie clinic will also be held in the evening.
A conditioning camp will also be held for kids born in 1995 and earlier for an hour and a half in the evening. All house league, rep players, high school players and Junior A players are welcome.
The full day programs will feature three hours of on ice practices with two hours of dryland training.
Allen says the on ice practices will feature a lot of skill development, skating, puck handling and tactics for the game.
The dryland training will sessions will be half hockey related with cardio workouts, stick handling and will also feature games such as the European floorball, indoor soccer, floor hockey and dodgeball.
Allen adds that having these summer hockey camps are great for kids of all ages looking to get back into the swing of things before the hockey season starts in the fall.
“It’s a good advantage for all programs. It’s good for kids before try-outs and it’s a good tune-up for house league.”
The camp will give parents and hockey players alike a glimpse into some of the Finnish techniques that will be incorporated into the hockey season in the 2010/2011 season, focusing less on playing time at a young age and more on learning the fundamentals.
The camp will be held at the Dryden Memorial Arena. The coahces are looking for 30 kids per group on a first come first serve basis.
Deadline to register is May 31 and can be done at the Pool and Fitness Centre or online at www.ExperienceDryden.ca

It wasn’t exactly the playoff ending the Dryden Ice Dogs were hoping for as they dropped game five to the Fort William North Stars in the best-of-seven Bill Salonen Cup final.
Clint Mylymok, head coach of the Ice Dogs, says after a very successful first round in the playoffs, a second place finish in five games was not at all what the team expected but some key factors were missing in those final games.
“Usually you look at three things. You look at goaltending, special teams and your top scorers. You usually need two out of three of those to have success, especially in a championship-type setting and we didn’t have all three.”
The team came into the final playoff round after going undefeated in the first round robin playoff round against the Sioux Lookout Flyers and the North Stars and beating out the Fort Frances Lakers in the semi-finals in six tough games.
Looking to repeat round one, the Ice Dogs missed the mark, falling 5-1 in Thunder Bay before tying the series in game two with a 2-1 decision.
The series came to the Dryden Memorial Arena April 3 and 4, where the Ice Dogs couldn’t hold on, losing 5-1 and 4-1 respectively.
The series returned to Thunder Bay where the North Stars finished the series and took home the Bill Salonen Cup with an 8-1 win over the Ice Dogs.
Mylymok says a big part of their loss was taking not taking shooting opportunities when they came up and always looking for that extra pass.
“You got to put pucks on net in the playoffs, get sticks on it on rebounds, deflections. You take a beating to score a goal and you got to make those types of sacrifices.
In our last two games against Fort Frances, all we did was put pucks to the net. We flooded players to the net, won faceoffs, got pucks to the net, battled for pucks. I didn’t see that same type of game from our forwards.”
On the positive side, talk in the stands kept coming back to local player Kevin Raine, who stepped in during the semi-finals to help out the defensive line.
At 16 years old, Raine delivered some huge hits for the team, making the trip towards the Ice Dogs net a huge challenge.
“He was a huge presence, especially in the series against Fort Frances. Players like Katapaytuk and Jourdain who are 6’ 2”, 220-230 lbs and they were getting through our guys to easy. The more [Raine] played, the more he got his timing down. He was a huge presence and I thought, to be honest, he was the turning point in that series.”
Mylymok says that Raine will have options in the hockey world in the next few years and he’ll have some big decisions to make in the future.
The playoffs may not have been as successful as the team expected but the season was far from a disappointment.
With only nine losses in the regular season, the team enjoyed a comfortable lead over most teams straight through to playoffs, something the boys should be proud of.

The Ice Dogs couldn’t pull a comeback in Thunder Bay last night in game 5, falling 8-1 to the North Stars.

The North Stars took the Ice Dogs four games to one in the best-of-seven series for the Bill Salonen Cup.

More info to follow in next week’s edition of the Dryden Observer

The Ice Dogs are now set to face off against the Fort William North?Stars in the final best-of-seven series for the Bill Salonen Cup starting this week.
The team earned their spot in the final with their game six win over the Fort Frances Lakers, 3-1 in Fort Frances on Friday, March 26.
Many were expecting a four game sweep of the Lakers but the team battled hard to stay in the race.
The Ice Dogs took the opening game in the semifinals at home with a thrilling 4-3 OT victory.
The team lost some momentum in game two as the Lakers came back to tie the series with a 4-2 win at the Dryden Memorial Arena.
The series headed to Fort Frances for games three and four March 20 and 22.
The Ice Dogs took game three in a double overtime victory, 4-3.
The Lakers came back again in game four to tie the series at two games each with a 4-2 win.
That brought the series back to Dryden March 24 for game five.
It was a close one but the Ice Dogs manged to hang on and take the series lead with a 2-1 win.
It was all over on March 26 as the Ice Dogs took game six to finish off the Lakers and earn their spot in the finals against the Fort William North?Stars.
The Ice Dogs out lasted the Lakers on their home ice in a 3-1 decision.
It’s now down to the top two teams in the SIJHL with the Ice Dogs taking on the North Stars in the best-of-seven Bill Salonen Cup.
Games one and two will take place in Thunder Bay on Wednesday, March 31 and Thursday, April 1.
The teams will return to Dryden Saturday, April 3 and Sunday, April 4 for games three and four.
The Ice Dogs have beaten the North Stars in all three of their last meetings, going undefeated in the round robin playoff.
Games five, six and seven are scheduled for April 6 in Thunder Bay, April 7 in Dryden and April 10 in Thunder Bay if necessary