Carter Peters notched a Gordie Howe hat trick and Domenik McInenly stood tall, stopping 28 of 30 shots as the Lakers beat the Walleye 6-4 Tuesday night.
Ice For Kids Arena was abuzz with young hockey players in the stands as the Fort Frances Lakers hosted minor hockey night sponsored by Kaemingh Fuels.
The Walleye opened the scoring with just over five minutes to go in the first period, when a high dump-in took an unfortunate bounce off a stanchion, landing in the slot at the feet of Walleye forward Mason Glousher, who was able to put it past McInenly.
The Lakers were dominant in the second period, peppering Walleye goaltender Noah Muise with 15 shots. Peters was the first to beat him just over two minutes into the middle frame, burying a rebound with Muise down and out after a shot from Bryant Linklater to tie the game at one apiece.
Just before the midway point of the period, from behind the net, Liam Starcevic found Anthony Yerxa on the doorstep for his fourth of the season to give the Lakers a lead they would not surrender.
Peters got his second of the game just a few minutes later when Lyndon Gould stole the puck and connected on a give-and-go passing play with Peters, who put it past Muise on his glove side.
The Walleye pulled one back on the power play before the end of the second period, but that would be their final response.
Isaac Arsenault, Bryant Linklater and Tie Schumacher all scored in the third to ice the game, while McInenly stopped 11 shots in the final frame.
Peters completed his Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, an assist and a fight) by assisting on Linklater’s goal and, with less than 30 seconds remaining, he and Nico Simeoni exchanged several slashes to the shin pads before finally dropping the gloves.
After the game, Peters said he thought it was one of the team’s best all season.
“I thought it was a great game,” he said. “I think we played about as good a game as we’ve played all season. Lots of good forechecks, playing the body. I think it benefited us really well.”
Assistant coach Foster Couvier said the team has been working hard in practice to play as well as they did tonight.
“The last 40, I think we really started playing how we want the guys to play as a team,” he said. “We established the forecheck; it was nice to see us finish some goals. We made plays when they were there; we didn’t turn over as many pucks. It was overall just a really good game.”
Couvier said he was pleased with McInenly’s goaltending efforts as well, especially given the gap between games as the Lakers are rolling with three tenders and have had so few games recently.
“We had a game a week for three weeks, so it’s been almost a month since he’s seen any game action,” Couvier said. “He was sick, so he missed a bit. So to see him get in there a step up and play really well, he kind of held things down. We had the lead, and they had a chance to come back, and he made the big save, then we ended up going the other way and scoring.”
With the win, the Lakers climbed into a tie with the Dryden Ice Dogs for second in the SIJHL standings behind the Thunder Bay North Stars by just one point.
The Lakers are taking a short break as they have almost a week’s gap in their game schedule. Their next game is on the road in Red Lake on Nov. 3, with the next home game being Nov. 8 against Dryden.
The Lakers’ final home game before Christmas will be Dec. 11 when they host Kam River once again. That game will also see the Lakers host their annual toy drive for the UNFC and a vendor market on the concourse. The Lakers will wrap up 2026 with a series of road games, including a pair in Michigan against the Lumberjacks on Dec. 18 and 19.
