James Cullison Sends Thunder Bay Past Lakers in Centennial Cup

James Cullison ended centennial cup Game 7 with an overtime goal, and the Thunder Bay North Stars beat the Fort Frances Lakers 5-4 to take the 2026 Bill Salonen Cup SIJHL finals on Tuesday night. The winner came through traffic after a 4-4 tie, ending a series in which the visiting team won every game.

Ice for Kids Arena

More than 1,300 Lakers fans watched at Ice for Kids Arena as Fort Frances pushed the game into overtime, but Thunder Bay finished the job a few minutes into the extra period. Connor Dunham-Fox made 42 saves on 46 shots in the win, while Brady Cates stopped 26 of 31 for the Lakers.

Fort Frances had a response every time the game tilted. Tie Schumacher opened the scoring on a power play, Thunder Bay answered less than five minutes later, and the North Stars then went ahead 2-1 inside three minutes of the second period before Teagan Wrolstad tied it on the power play and later scored again before the period ended.

Thunder Bay pressure

The Lakers were still there late. They fired 12 shots toward Dunham-Fox in the third period, pulled Cates with about two and a half minutes left, and Ronnie Bender scored off a rebound from a Zak Green point shot with less than 90 seconds remaining to force overtime at 4-4. Joey Payeur described that tying goal as “Bender bedlam.”

Fort Frances head coach and general manager Luke Judson stood in the tunnel under the IFK afterward and told his players, “I just told them, they’ve done more than they can imagine for elevating hockey in Fort Frances, to be what it is now.” The Lakers’ season ended on the same ice where they kept coming back, but Cullison’s finish made Thunder Bay the side leaving with the title.

Wrolstad and Bender

Wrolstad’s two goals kept Fort Frances alive through the middle periods, and Bender’s late rebound goal turned the final stretch into a sprint to the finish. Dunham-Fox then turned away nine Lakers shots in overtime before Cullison broke through and closed Game 7.