Local sports for Monday March 16th

The matchups are all set for the first round of the SIJHL playoffs.

The Fort Frances Lakers will have a bye as they finished first in the league standings with 78 points.

The Lakers completed the schedule with 6-1 win over the Ironwood Lumberjacks on Friday.

The Dryden GM Ice Dogs were second with 72 points.

The Dogs lost their final regular season game 4-2 to the Sioux Lookout Bombers.

Dryden begins the playoffs next Sunday against the Red Lake Miners.

The Thunder Bay North Stars finished third overall and will play the Ironwood Lumberjacks.

The Stars tied with the Kam River Fighting Walleye with 64 points, but they had one more win than the Walleye.

Kam River will face the Sioux Lookout Bombers to round out the first-round play-off matchups.

The Kenora U13 AAA Thistles are this year’s winners of the Northwestern Playdowns.

The Thistles, made up of players from Kenora, Fort Frances, Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake, downed the Thunder Bay Kings in two straight games.

The Thistles took game one 5-4 and shut out Thunder Bay 5-0 in game two.

They will now prepare for the Ontario U13 AAA championships in Waterloo next month.

This weekend, the Kenora U18 AAA Thistles travel to Thunder Bay to meet the Kings in the Northwestern Playdowns.

The winner moves on to the Telus Western U18 AAA championships in Regina at the beginning of April.