The Fort Frances Lakers won two out of three games over the last week, including wins over Red Lake and Kam River on the road, but falling to the Dryden Ice Dogs in the team’s first Sunday home game at the Duke Arena this season.
The Lakers kicked the week off with a dominant win over the Red Lake Miners at Cochenour Arena on Tuesday.
They fell behind early, giving up a goal just 90 seconds into the game, but responded just 25 seconds later when captain Gunnar Simon got the Lakers on the board; Anthony Yerxa scored to put the Lakers ahead before the end of the first period, and they never looked back. Two goals in both the second and third periods gave the Lakers a 6-1 win over the Miners. Domenik McInenly took the win in net, stopping 28 of 29 shots he faced.
Saturday’s game against the Kam River Fighting Walleye marked the return of Ronnie Bender, who started the season on a team in the U.S. before electing to return to the Lakers. Bender was among the team’s scoring leaders a season ago and will hope to add to the team’s offence as they go forward this year.
The power play was clicking for the Lakers against Kam River as they scored all three of their goals with the man advantage. After Kam River took the lead seven minutes into the first period, Lynden Gould and Zak Green scored on the power play to put the Lakers up by one going into the second, with Green’s coming with just 10 seconds remaining in the period.
With the second half of a double minor continuing early in the second, Bender scored to put the Lakers up 3-1; the Walleye pushed and scored another in the third but could not complete the comeback. Nolan Koethler backstopped the team to the 3-2 win, stopping 25 of 27 pucks thrown his way.
Sunday saw the Lakers play their first official home game at the Duke Arena on Couchiching First Nation, which Lakers forwards Anthony and William Yerxa call home. The game opened with speeches from Couchiching First Nation Chief Richard Bruyere and Treaty #3 Deputy Grand Chief Cheyenne Vandermeer regarding violence against women as the event hosted a drive for supplies for families fleeing abuse.
Following the opening remarks, the Yerxas joined the singers around the Broken Horn drum for the flag song, serving as the national anthem for the afternoon.
The Lakers got off to a slow start and gave up three goals in a short span in the first. Griffin McGraw scored three goals in the span of less than a minute when the Lakers gave up a pair of odd-man rushes and a power-play goal.
The Lakers pushed back and pulled back to within one goal, with Tie Schumacher and Luke Inman scoring before the end of the period.
The second period was a back-and-forth affair with each team getting 10 shots apiece with none breaching the goal line.
The Lakers tied the game early in the final period when Bryant Linklater scored to make it 3-3, but that was all she wrote for the home team. The Ice Dogs scored with about four minutes remaining to go up 4-3 and put the game out of reach with an empty-netter. Brady Shields took the loss in net, giving up 22 goals on 26 shots while the Lakers outshot the Ice Dogs 34-27.
After the week that was, head coach and GM Luke Judson said despite the loss, it was a good one.
“I probably look at it as a whole week. When we talk about our Tuesday game, I think that had a big effect on how we handled our week and trying to get the rest we needed, and trying to prepare with a busy schedule, lots of travel, and some tough opponents,” he said. “So to get two out of three, I would say is a pretty good week for us.”
Even with the loss, he said the fight the team showed was important.
“After the last game, as disappointed as we were to not be able to win one in Couchiching, you know when you look at the reality of it, three games in the week and a quick turnaround from Saturday night, and going down three early to a first-place team, I think the boys battled pretty well, and to make that a hockey game, ultimately come up short. I think we can be satisfied with the effort, maybe not the result,” Judson said.
“Obviously we did make a couple mistakes to get there. They got one on the power play, and obviously, understanding we’re playing against a good hockey team, a lot of teams would fold up there pretty quick, and to have the group kind of rally together and chip away at the score for the next two periods, tie it in the third. I think that kind of showed a lot of what these guys are made of, and we’ll work to be on the other side of it the next time we play. But I think we can be proud of how they worked and kind of fix the mistakes that got us in that hole. But ultimately, I think there’s a lot of positives.”
The Lakers will look to return to their winning ways against the last-place Ironwood Lumberjacks tonight at Ice for Kids Arena starting at 7:15 p.m. They will also have an opportunity to seek revenge against the Ice Dogs when they come back to town on Friday night for a contest back at IFK.
