Sabres sweep Bearcats

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres showed their mettle—making a tough weekend showdown against the third-place Thunder Bay Bearcats look all too easy as they swept the visitors by scores of 6-2 and 4-3.
“All week we just talked about what it would take to beat this team,” Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan said.
“The players bought into it, and performed it to a ‘T’ out there in those two games.”
The Sabres (14-15-3-3) boasted an overhaul in systems—notably a measured forecheck that kept the potent but failing Bearcats (22-14-0-0) in their place.
The visitors never led in either game.
Sunday afternoon’s victory was the third in the row for the Sabres, and the fourth-consecutive loss for the Bearcats.
Strachan, who said just a week before that earning just a split against Thunder Bay would be “a great feat,” said the big change was “paying attention to details” and taking more pride in team defence.
“This is a team, the Bearcats, that has two of the better lines in the league,” he noted. “For the most part, you gotta play to the players that play against them, and shut them down.”
While the Sabres did look fundamentally strong, they also carried an attitude wholly unlike when they split with the Bearcats in their last series against them here back in October.
Riding the momentum of last weekend’s 6-4 win against the Fort William North Stars, the Sabres looked all but untouchable—with the Bearcats unable to score until the third period of either game.
On Saturday night, every odd-man rush looked potentially explosive—with the Sabres’ paths to the net too accessible as Fort Frances scored six-straight goals before the Bearcats managed to save face with a late pair.
The moment that will stick in fans’ memories, however, came in the last six seconds of Sunday afternoon’s game when Steven Sus snapped a 3-3 tie, burying a rebound for the game-winner.
Bearcats’ captain Brad Pawlowski then attacked Chris Sinclair—sparking a line brawl that drew both goalies into the mix after Ryan Faragher crossed the ice with the intention of pulling the 6’3” Pawlowski off of the full foot shorter Sinclair.
“I wouldn’t fight unless I had a reason, and that was a reason,” Faragher said after the game, wearing the team’s MVP belt—appropriately, a plastic wrestling title belt—after stopping 28 shots Saturday and 38 yesterday.
The line brawl was the culmination to a weekend that grew increasingly physical, with Mario Boivin and Graham Dyck each squaring off in the first game.
Dyck scrapped again yesterday after a title bout between Logan McDonell and the 6’4”, 240-pound Steve Natywary that easily will contend for SIJHL fight of the year.
“They’re a high octane, offensive team,” said Sabres’ assistant captain Colin Spencer. “It was definitely a hard-fought battle on both sides.
“We went into this weekend looking for four points. That was our goal, and we’re happy to achieve it,” he added.
The Sabres next host the cellar-dwelling Thunder Bay Bulldogs (5-24-3-0) for a three-game series this coming weekend.
But Strachan stressed the Sabres can’t underestimate them—especially with a number of suspensions pending from last night’s line brawl, including one to Faragher.
“By no means is it going to be easy,” he warned, calling the Bulldogs a young, “in-your-face” team—one that has let in fewer goals on the season than the Sabres.
The Bulldogs also upset the front-running Dryden Ice Dogs 5-2 win on Saturday.