Ron Valentine is profiling the 10 teams that will compete for the Centennial Cup in Oakville from May 9-19.
BY RON VALENTINE
The Sioux Lookout Bombers, the Superior International Junior Hockey League reps, were only founded in 2022-23.
Less than two years, they’ll play in the national championships.
They finished third that initial season with 63 points.
This season the Bombers upped that total to 74 and ended the regular campaign in second place five points behind the Kam River Fighting Walleye, from just west of Thunder Bay, in the eight-team loop. (The SIJHL includes seven teams based in Northwestern Ontario and one in Wisconsin.)
Their final record was 35 wins, 10 regulation losses along with two overtime and two shootout setbacks. They found the net 200 times while letting in 113 and were the least penalized team with 721 penalty minutes.
In the Bill Salonen Cup playoffs, the Bombers swept the Fort Frances Lakers in four games scoring 23 goals in the process. In Round 2 it took them just five games to best the Thunder Bay North Stars before advancing to the Centennial Cup with a win in four over the Walleye. The last game went into overtime with JONAH SMITH’s game winner punching their ticket to Oakville .
The population of Sioux Lookout is only a little over 5,000 souls, which increases big time in the tourist season. The community is located about 350 kilometers northwest of Thunder Bay. The emblem on the club sweater logo is of a plane used in firefighting in the area.
The team plays out of Memorial Arena, which was built in 1952 and renovated in 1999. It can hold around 600 for hockey.
The town previously had a representative in the SIJHL called the Flyers who were founded in 2008 but dropped out of the league early in the 2012-13 season.
The make up of this team is far-flung with players born in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Washington state, as well as Ontario.
OWEN RIFFEL led the way in regular season scoring with 36 goals, six being game winners, and 67 points. Twin brothers from Thorold ON, BLAKE and CONNOR BURKE finished with 56 and 53 points respectively. DAYVAN BULL led their blueline squad with 37 with team captain NOLAN PALMER and KADEN VELLER on 32. MATTHEW SPENCER-DAHL and JACK OSMOND combined for a 2.25 goals against average with each ‘keeper posting three shutouts. The club ended their campaign on a high note winning their final four contests, all on the road, by a combined count of 25-8.
In the playoffs, Osmond started and finished all 13 contests and ended with a GAA of 2.24 and two shutouts. Leading their postseason points getters was JONAH SMITH, from Lac La Biche, AB, who had 11 goals and 17 points. Riffel had 16 points, Connor Burke had 15 and four players were tied on 13- OWEN COTTER, from Welland ON, COBE DELANEY and TREVER SANDERSON, who both started the season in Fort Frances and are both from La Ronge SK and ALEX LUCAS from Oro-Medonte ON. The Bombers scored 64 goals in their 13 postseason games, allowing just 30.
Head coach CARSON JOHNSTONE skated for the GOJHL’s Fort Erie Meteors before playing for the Marian University Sabres in NCAA Division 3, the Portage College Voyageurs and then in Denmark and Sweden. His father, Chris, an RIT grad, coached the OHL’s Niagara Falls Thunder and Erie Otters.
Carson comments: “I applied for the head coaching position of the Walleye when they started out in 2001 so it perhaps made our playoff win against them a little more special. We have a very structured club that focuses on speed and skill and sound positional play. We always want to be a tough team to play against. Riffel and the Burke twins were our big point getters in the regular season but in the playoffs it has been a total team effort in the playoffs with 10 players in double figures in points. We can’t be worried about the teams we will be up against at the Centennial Cup but we have to continue to focus on all the things that we do well. Being in Oakville will be big for the players and a great opportunity for us all to represent the SIJHL as well as we possibly can. Coming from Niagara Falls it will be nice to meet old friends from Southern Ontario.”
AUSTEN HOEY is the club’s director of operations. He has coached minor hockey and has been an on-ice instructor for the Northwestern Hockey Sports Camp.
Hoey is proud of what the club has accomplished in two seasons: “We were not too happy with the outcome of last season’s playoffs (a seven-game loss to the Wisconsin Lumberjacks with the Bombers losing Game 7 at home in overtime) and we saw a few things we needed to fix.”
“Nolan Palmer has led the team this season as we built on core players we had last year. We put defence first on this club and that showed in the regular season standings. We have had responsible goaltending and very balanced scoring. Our lines have taken turns leading the way in each game. We are a team that focuses on skating and making intelligent plays.”
“Carson and the coaching staff have got the best out of the players all season long and there is a confidence now after our 12-1 run in the playoffs. We were very concerned about our second-round matchup with the Thunder Bay North Stars, who play a heavy game and are very strong on the forecheck, but we were able to get past them. We were confident going into the final against the Walleye despite our regular season record against them. We won two of seven but two of the losses were in a shootout and one in overtime.”
“We are arranging some exhibition games between now and Oakville and we will be playing on larger ice surfaces so we can get more used to that.”
“We feel that we can offer players a program that can be compared to any junior club across the country and following our first season in the SIJHL we welcomed many new faces from Saskatchewan and Manitoba who had heard positive things about us through word of mouth.”
“We know we will be tested at the Centennial Cup. The MJHL rep (Winkler or Steinbach) are very strong, Oakville will have their fans behind them in their own rink, the Maritimes are always a force and the SJHL team (Flin Flon or Melfort) are highly rated. I think this league’s skill level has improved dramatically over the last few years (the SIJHL was founded in 2001) and we will be proud to showcase our product. Our players are dedicated, refuse to be outworked and are all looking forward to a great experience at the national finals.”
The Bombers will open proceedings at the Centennial Cup on May 9 in Oakville as they take on the representative from the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in Game 1 at noon.
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