The Fort Frances Lakers are back in action, but it will take some work if the team wants to get back up to the same level that saw them reach game seven of the finals last year.
The Lakers fell 5-1 on Friday and 7-5 on Saturday to a Thunder Bay team that looked like the defending league champions they are.
The Lakers struggled to maintain discipline as well, taking six penalties Friday night leading to three powerplay goals. On Saturday, they took a further eight penalties and gave up three more powerplay goals.
Following game one, Lakers head coach Luke Judson said he didn’t think the team put in a full 60 minutes.
“I thought at the end of the day we competed well for the first period, maybe a period and a half, and then after that we lost our legs a little bit, we lost our competitiveness,” Judson said. “I’m okay with jitters. I’m okay with systematically not being perfect. But at the end of the day, we need to compete. We need to be physical. I thought that part of it got away from us a little bit. We’re not gonna pout about it. I’m not making excuses, but most of these guys have just been practising together for three days. So we’ve got lots we can work on, lots we’re gonna sort out, but we’ve got to put our best foot forward tomorrow.”
The Lakers looked better on Saturday, throwing 38 shots towards North Stars goalie and Fort Frances local Eleazar Andrusco, as opposed to Friday’s 26.
But the special teams proved to be a difference maker.
“I think they have a lot of firepower on offense,” Judson said. “You give any team in this league that many chances, whether you agree or not with the calls, we’re going to be in trouble. It’s hard to win games on the kill.”
At times during both games the Lakers bench clashed with officials, objecting to calls against the home team.
The Lakers emerged from the first period of Saturday’s game with the lead 2-1 on the back of a Tie Schumacher goal, which was immediately followed up by a marker from rookie Liam Starcevic.
The North Stars won the second period though, and went into the final frame up 4-3. The Lakers tied it up early in the period on a second marker from Schumacher, but a powerplay goal put Thunder Bay back on top before the midway point of the period.
With goaltender Brady Shields on the bench, the Lakers tried to tie it before giving up an empty-net goal. Shortly after the empty netter, Lakers Forward Dax Laplante got that one back with 20 seconds remaining. However, a second empty netter with 11 seconds remaining ended any chance of a comeback.
Laplante was one of the bright spots on the weekend scoring in both games.
“I think anyone who knows Dax knows that he was, without a doubt, our hardest working player in the offseason, and throughout the season he sets that example every day, so I hope he continues to be rewarded. He’s going to be a go-to guy in lots of situations for us,” Judson said. “He shone on the penalty kill and the way he competes on the forecheck, he and Isaac (Arsenault) had some really good shifts together. They created a lot, we’ll figure out how to capitalize on those things a little more.”
Ahead of a weekend road trip to Michigan to face off against the Ironwood Lumberjacks, Judson said the team will be putting in the work to improve and gel as a team.
“The guys that have been here know on Mondays we have what we call work day,” Judson said. “We come in and we get in better shape. We compete. It’s how we want to play every game, and we set the tone on Monday of what our week looks like and how we want to play on Friday. So Monday is going to be a work day. All our practices are high tempo, but at the same time, this time of year, you’ve got to spend some time on systems and things like that so the guys are on the same page with how we play the game and how we do things. There’s positives, but at the same time, there’s lots we can do better.”
