Ron Valentine is profiling teams participating in the 2023 Centennial Cup in Manitoba.

Today: the Kam River Fighting Walleye from Northwestern Ontario

BY RON VALENTINE

The KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE topped the regular season standings in the Superior International Junior Hockey League in their first season of existence, 2021-22. and they repeated the feat in the 2022-23 campaign.

In the seven-team league, the Walleye won 40 of their 54 contests leading them to be ranked 18th nationally. The Thunder Bay-area club received a first round playoff bye. Their first opponents, the sixth place finishers, the Wisconsin Lumberjacks, fell to the 'Fish' 4-1 scoring just 10 times to 30 for the top seed.

The SIJHL final against the Thunder Bay North Stars for the Bill Salonen Cup was very close with two one-goal games plus a single and double overtime game, going the full complement of seven. Both clubs scored 27 times in the series. Ryan Doucette, who played in 2021-22 for the NOJHL's Blind River Beavers, had the trophy winning goal.

Jeremy Dunmore, in his second season as a Walleye, recorded 58 points in the regular campaign. Ethan Lang had 54, bueliner Jack Cook 50, including a club-leading 2 goals, and Max Leduc ended with 45 points. Cook continued to be the go-to guy in the playoffs with 11 goals and 19 points. Dunmore had 16 points, Leduc 14, while three players- Lang, Noah Kramps and Kyle Lamoureux finished with 13. Cook was voted SIJHL defenceman of the year and playoff MVP.

In goal, Jack Orchard posted a goals against average of 2.44 in 19 appearances while Eric Vanska was 2.70 in 36 games. Vanska had five shutouts, Orchard 4. It was Vanska in net for all of the club's post-season contests and he posted a 2.81 GAA.

The club plays out of the Norwest arena in the municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, 20 minutes west of ThunderBay. It is a storied building, having a capacity of just under 900 and was the rink that the famous Staal brothers, Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared, who called home in minor hockey. The club is named after the Kaministiquia (known locally as the 'Kam') river which runs through Thunder Bay.

Kevin McCallum is the Walleye's general manager. Geoff Walker, from Charlottetown PEI , is in his first season as head coach. After a successful junior campaign, including a 90-point season in 2007-08 for the PEI Rocket of the QMJHL, he played professional hockey for ten seasons in the AHL, ECHL and in England. It will be Geoff's second straight appearance at the Centennial Cup. Last year he was behind the bench of the SIJHL champion Red Lake Miners. It was his third season as GM/head coach there. Geoff coached briefly in Sweden at the start of the 2022-23 campaign before joining the Walleye in November.

Coach Walker: "We had a good regular season but more important than the results we had, I felt that we got better as the season went on and as a coach that's all you are looking for really." "We kept talking about playing the right way, doing the little things day in and day out that allow the team to have success, the boys bought into that more and more as the season went on and once the playoffs came around we were firing on all cylinders."

"We did have to overcome some adversity as we went down 2-0 in the SIJHL final but then we really got to see the character and drive that we have in our dressing room, so it was very satisfying to watch our guys be rewarded with the Bill Salonen Cup and a berth at the Centennial Cup."

"It's going to be an experience that the players will never forget and we all can't wait to get started."

Most fans are not too familiar with the new kids on the block in the SIJHL but they are determined to give a good account of themselves at the Centennial Cup. They will not have long to wait to get into action, opening the tournament on May 11 against the Saskatchewan champions. the Battlefords North Stars.