Jamie Mountain
The Fort Frances Lakers lost a valued member of their hockey family this spring and it was almost as if her spirit was shining down on the team over the weekend.
On the same night they honoured the memory of Karen Angus in a touching pre-game ceremony ahead of their SIJHL home-opener on Friday, the Lakers used that energy to cruise to an 8-2 romp over the Thief River Falls Norskies at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The Lakers also kept that momentum going the following night at they rallied from a 2-0 hole in the third period to stun the Norskies with a 3-2 overtime victory at the Ralph Engelstad Arena to complete the home-and-home series and start the regular season with a 2-0 record.
Angus, who passed away back on May 2, was a proud Lakers’ sponsor, fan, billet mom, volunteer and board member who made lasting friendships and memories with many people.
Being a “hockey mom” was a new experience that she never imagined she would do, but she absolutely loved it.
“As a billet mom, she always had a house full and three kids living with her and the boys had a lot of respect for her,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan after the win on home ice.
“That was a place where they got to bond and whatnot and not only being a billet mom, but being a board member and just the time she spent for the organization in helping out volunteering at every event and, obviously, being a sponsor as well through her family’s business.
“Losing her is always tough on a family, and we’re a family,” he added.
“And it was the right thing to do to in honouring her and playing in honour of her tonight and wearing her initials on our helmets to honour her through the year.”
The inspired Lakers went out and honoured Angus the right way on Friday night in the season-opener for both them and Norskies.
Local forward Ethan Carlson-Jourdain had a three-point night in his home debut to pace the hosts to the convincing victory at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Ben Hoefler opened the scoring for the Lakers 6:57 into the first period when he corralled the puck and tucked a low shot past the pad of Norskies’ goalie Seth Purcilly for a man-advantage tally.
Fort Frances then blew it wide open in the second frame in scoring three times within the span of a minute.
Nick Swain potted his first SIJHL goal 4:20 into the period on a 2-on-1 rush.
Carlson-Jourdain then rifled a shot off the crossbar and in over Purcilly just seven seconds later before tallying again with a slapshot just past the five-miute mark to put the goalie’s night to an end early.
Purcilly then was lifted in favour of Caleb Sauer.
“It’s definitely amazing, we’re a really good team this year,” said Carlson-Jourdain of fitting in with the Lakers’ roster so far.
“We work and play so hard, you know, they make me feel really comfortable in that locker room and playing with the linemates I had is a real honour.”
Sauer didn’t fare much better than Purcilly as he was welcomed to the game with another goal as Noah Loveday, who has been tabbed as the Lakers’ captain this season, took a feed from Jack Lane through the middle before deking out the Norskies and potting his first of the year to put the hosts ahead 5-0.
The Norskies (0-2) finally got on the board with a couple of quick markers from Mason McIntosh and Tyler Johnson that beat Lakers’ goalie Alex Bugeja just under a minute apart to trim it to 5-2 after 40 minutes.
But showing some more offensive dominance, the Lakers got markers from Stone Stelzl and Lane early in the third to make it a 7-2 game.
Carlson-Jourdain then feathered a beautiful pass to fellow local forward Kaleb Bruyere, who sprung past a pair of Norskies’ defenders before depositing a shot past Sauer at 11:33 to cap the scoring.
Bugeja turned aside 35 shots to earn the win while Purcilly suffered the loss in allowing four goals against on 23 shots.
Sauer stopped 17-of-21 attempts in nearly 35 minutes of relief.
“You know it’s what we wanted to do, it was our goal tonight,” Strachan, whose team is ranked 12th nationally in this week’s CJHL top 20 rankings, said of getting the win in the opener on home ice.
“We’ve prepared all week in a pretty professional manner and tonight we played pretty detailed to our system and because of that, I think it gave us a good opportunity to have success and the guys played hard right from the get-go.
“Our jump was good, the pace of the game was good,” he enthused. “We did a good job in gaining the momentum and probably the thing I’m most proud about is we really limited their Grade A opportunities to score and it’s something we concentrated on all week.”
On Saturday night, Matthew Dyck’s goal 2:12 into overtime was the difference as the Lakers rallied late to edge the Norskies at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.
After a scoreless first period, Thief River Falls opened the scoring on an early power play in the second stanza as Cole Carpenter nailed down his first SIJHL goal at 2:16.
That held up until the opening moments of the third, when McIntosh put the hosts up by a pair in the first minute.
The Lakers began their comeback at 3:56 as Lane finally put the visitors on the board.
Fort Frances then knotted it at 2-2 four minutes later as Hoefler tallied to force extra time.
Heading into OT, it was Fort Frances that prevailed as Hoefler started the play behind his own net before getting the puck up to Isaac Baron, who skated in on the left wing and fired a shot off the pad of Purcilly that bounced right to Dyck.
Dyck promptly lifted in a backhand for the game-winner that improved the Lakers to a perfect 2-0.
The Norskies did hold the edge in shots by a slim 36-35 margin, with Bugeja again earning up the win and Purcilly suffering the loss.
“I believe it was a few things,” Strachan said of what spurred the Lakers’ comeback on the road.
“The first being we knew we hadn’t played our game or to our capability through a lot of the first 40 minutes, and we had to get back to working hard as well as using our speed.
“Second, we started to compete and stick up for one another,” he noted.
“Much of the first half of the game, the Norskies beat us in a lot of battles. Third, I feel our guys believed they could win the game.
“Once we got our first goal, the bench just kept saying don’t let off the gas pedal and they [the Norskies] didn’t have an answer,” he added.
The Lakers will resume action this Friday as they open another home-and-home set, this time against the Dryden GM Ice Dogs (0-1), at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids arena.
Fort Frances then will head to Dryden on Saturday night to complete the series.
