Road Report – January 16-17, 2026

The Sioux Lookout Bombers were looking for a good start against the North Stars in the first trip to the Fort William Gardens this season. They came out with a high level of intensity and put good forechecking pressure on early, forcing Morgan Blackwood to bail out his team mates on some forced turnovers in the Thunder Bay zone. The two teams traded chances for the first half of the period with both goaltenders coming up with some big saves. The physicality picked up about halfway through the opening frame. Both teams were focused on finishing every check. At 12:16, Kaden Veller sifted a shot in from the point and found its way through (CLIP BELOW) to give the Bombers a 1-0 lead. Shots through 20 minutes of play were 13 to 9 in favour of the Bombers.

The Bombers started off the second period a man short for nearly four minutes. They killed it off and even generated some short-handed chances. Shortly after, Kaden Veller walked in and fired a shot from the left face-off dot past Blackwood on the power play (CLIP BELOW) to give the Bombers a two-goal lead. At 6:15, Easton Glousher scored for the North Stars shorthanded on a drop pass from Matthew Bertolin. Late in the middle stanza, Thunder Bay scored a trio of goals in the span of less than three minutes to leapfrog Sioux Lookout on scoreboard. The goals were scored by Evan Simeoni, Easton Glousher and Matthew Bertolin. The North Stars now led 4-2 headed to the locker room.

Nick Webb took over in goal in relief for Mathew Ofukany, who had been involved in a collision on one of the second period goals, to start the third period. The North Stars picked up two more quick goals from Chance Loke and Lucas Bertolin. Owen Cotter, fighting like a bulldog to drag the Bombers back into the hockey game, got his 19th goal of the season (CLIP BELOW). It was too little, too late. Even with a seven-minute power play late in regulation, the Bombers could not convert and ultimately fell 6-3 to the North Stars. 

The Bombers outshot 42-30 and were one for four on the power play. They were on penalized just once in the game and were perfect on the PK.

A slow start cost the Bombers early and put some extra pressure on newly-minted goaltender Logan Maroni, who was tapped to make his first start for the Bombers. The first goal of the game came at 5:16, scored by Acoyen Fehr off a rebound and over Maroni’s glove. The North Stars struck again on the power play at 8:48 on the glove side again when Matthew Lysak took a cross-ice feed from Fehr and delivered the puck to the back of the net. After that the new netminder settled in and made a couple grade-a stops. Momentum shifted in favour of the Bombers in second half of the period. A solid shift from the Cotter-Love-McGahey line created a number of prime scoring chances. The next time the hit the ice, the trio got the Bombers first goal of the game. At 18:47, off a clean face-off win by Cotter, Love sent a flutter puck up and over Connor Dunham-Fox (CLIP BELOW) to get the Bombers on the board and cut the North Stars lead in half. Shots in the opening frame were 16-14 for Sioux Lookout.

The second period was a great back and forth period with minimal stoppages and chances at both ends of the ice. Even tough the Bombers mustered up a solid five minutes of pressure in the middle of the period and seem to have the North Stars on their heels, at 10:22 Connor Larrett pounced on a loose puck in the slot and made no mistake beating Maroni high on the blocker side. Just over two minutes later Reed Scaddan picked up a rebound on a Haraphongse shot off the rush (CLIP BELOW) to make it 3-2. Shots in the second were 20-11 for the Bombers.

The third period saw a little bit of everything. The North Stars actually started the period shorthanded with Mitch Vanderwey being assessed a minor penalty at the buzzer of the second for slashing. The Bombers were unable to score with the man-advantage. At the 2:23 mark, a fire alarm sounded in the Fort William Gardens and the game had to be paused for several minutes while the issue was sorted out. At 5:45, Lucas Bertolin scored his team-leading 20th of the campaign and restored the two-goal cushion of the North Stars. Cooper Labelle served up some top cheddar (CLIP BELOW) at 6:52 to put the Bombers back within one. Despite pulling out all the stops (and the goalie) the Bombers were unable to find the equalizer and with 36 seconds left in regulation, Easton Glousher potted an empty netter to lift the North Stars to a 5-3 victory.

Logan Maroni made 34 saves on the night while Connor Dunham-Fox made 46 for the win. The Bombers went 0 for 5 on the power play and the North Stars were 1 for 3.

The Sioux Lookout Bombers finally return home to the Hangar this week for a Tuesday matchup against the Dryden GM Ice Dogs. It will be the fourth instalment of the Battle of 72 this year. The Bombers lead the season series, two games to one.