Staff
The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres scored four times in the third period yesterday afternoon en route to a 6-2 win over the host Dryden Ice Dogs.
Brendan Baumgartner scored twice while Mitch Cain, Kyle Turgeon, Mike Boese, and Ryan Witherspoon added singles.
Kevin Burton and Tristan Allain replied for the Ice Dogs.
“Our first period we kind of had the same game going as Friday [a 3-1 loss here against Schreiber],” Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan said.
“I went in [at the intermission] and wasn’t all that nice explaining our effort and the way we were playing.
“The second period we took the game over, playing solid together as five-man units on the ice, supporting one another and using our speed to create a lot of offence,” he added.
Chris Sinclair and Colton Kennedy added two assists apiece, helping the Sabres improve to 22-12-2 on the season while the Ice Dogs dropped to 15-16-5.
As noted, the Sabres redeemed themselves after the 3-1 loss to the Schreiber Diesels on Friday after they had blanked the Diesels 5-0 the previous night.
The Sabres got a power-play goal late in the first from Cain, but it was the two extended five-on-three power-play chances they couldn’t convert on that ultimately cost them the game.
“We had a chance to bury them with two five-on-three power-play chances and we got two shots,” Strachan recalled. “Not acceptable.
“[And] from there on, we just couldn’t muster any flow and didn’t have a lot of effort.”
The Diesels tied the game in the second when Tim Harris converted on a rebound during a power play.
The game then opened up in the third as both teams exchanged quality scoring chances, but the goal that broke the camel’s back was a fluke shot that surprised Sabres’ goalie Ryan Faragher, sneaking past him and giving Dimitri Panagiotou his 17th goal of the season.
Kevin Clark iced the win with an empty-netter late in the game.
The Diesels (18-15-3) remain seven points behind the Sabres for third place in the SIJHL standings.
The Sabres next welcome the last-place Sioux Lookout Flyers to the Ice for Kids Arena tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
